Epistemologies and perspectives Flashcards
Epistemology
Explain Objectivism
Reality is independent of consciousness. Researchers should not strive to include their own feelings and values.
What theoretical perspectives belong to objectivism and explain them.
Positivism
Researcher and studied object are independent of each other. The reality is out there and you can measure it with instruments. Problem is that science begins with theory and not with observation so this is still theory laden.
Post-positivism
The researcher is aware of the imperfection of measurement instruments. We can only approximate the truth but never fully know it.
Epistemology
Explain constructivism
Meaning is constructed, not discovered. Truth and meaning do not exist in some external world, but are created by the subjects interactions with the world.
What theoretical perspectives belong to constructivism and explain them.
This is interpretivistic. Knowledge is contextual and multiple realities can be truth.
Phenomenology
You can only understand reality if you get to know the lived experience of the individual. With language you can give meaning to something. Inductive approach.
Symbolic interactionism
Meanings arise from the process of social interaction. They are not stable, but are revised on the basis of experience.
Epistemology
Explain subjectivism
What something means to you, depends on your personal interpretation. This happens unconsciously, which is mostly influenced by cultural and religious beliefs.
Meaning is not something individual, but is also shared in community.
What theoretical perspectives belong to subjectivism and explain them
Critical inquiry
You are only able to understand the lived experience of someone, if you look at it form the perspective of inequality. Certain groups in society are privileged over others and exert oppressive force on other groups. The critical inquiry also wants to change something.
Feminism
What a person knows, is largely determined by their social position. Feminism regards woman as an oppressed class. Women have access to a deeper reality through their personal experiences, and through their feelings and emotions.
Postmodernism
Questions traditional research. It relativates the truth and truth is dependent of cultural and individual experiences. There are different perspectives and not one way to know the truth.
Pragmatism
Views the mixing of quantitative and qualitative data in a single study not only as legitimate, but sometimes also necessarry. Focusses not on whether a proposition fits a particular ontology, but whether it suits a purpose and is capable of creating action.
