MRes Terms Flashcards
Positivist Paradigm on knowledge
Emphasis on quantative data and measurement
Positivism
There is an objective account of the world to be found out through empirical science to find those universal laws to explain it
Interpretivism paradigm
People bring meaning to situations and behaviour and use that to understand the world
Constructivism
Reality is constructed by local social groups and contexts. Reality is local, specific and constructed
Nomothetic vs ideographic explanation of phenomenon
Nomothetic: universal laws, deductions based on probability in large samples. Description and explanation, knowledge is in universals.
Ideographic seeks local, case study based meanings, understanding, sees knowledge as situated.
Reflexivity
Reflexivity generally refers to the examination of one’s own beliefs, judgments and practices during the research process and how these may have influenced the research. If positionality refers to what we know and believe then reflexivity is about what we do with this knowledge. Reflexivity involves questioning one’s own taken for granted assumptions. Essentially, it involves drawing attention to the researcher as opposed to ‘brushing her or him under the carpet’ and pretending that she or he did not have an impact or influence. It requires openness and an acceptance that the researcher is part of the research (Finlay 1998).
Reflexivity is not the same as being ‘reflective’: all researchers think about and make judgements about their data (for example, ‘do the data suggest a certain conclusion can be drawn?’); reflexivity steps further back and examines the person making the judgements (‘am I the kind of person who will be predisposed to believe that the data suggest this conclusion?’). Reflexivity and positionality are considered differently across research traditions. Positivism, in seeking to mimic the methods of natural science, adopts a third person narrative and creates the myth of value free research. This is not, of course, the same as saying the positivist researchers fail to reflect on data or that they are unreflexive; they may have thought long and hard about their position but have accepted the convention not to talk about it. Within a more interpretive approach discussion of reflexivity may be encouraged, particularly in longer more personal documents such as theses, though there is no agreement on the form that this discussion should take.
Systematic sampling
Every nth item
Stratified sampling
Population is stratified eg into male and female then random, systematic or convenience sampling is done on each strata.
Cluster sampling
Random selection of cluster eg location then use everything in selected cluster
Types of rating scale in surveys
Categorical, ordinal, numerical
Categorical rating scale also known as
Nominal response scales
Caregorical/nominal response scale
Category/group
Eg male or female
School
Religion
Ordinal response scale
Hierarchy eg high, medium, low / military ranks/socioeconomic status /Likert scales eg helpful, OK, not helpful
Symbolic interactionism
A framework for building theories about society that sees society as a product of interaction between people to build symbols representing reality,symbolic worlds and these images and worlds and narratives shape behaviour.
Wikipedia- a frame of reference to better understand how individuals interact with one another to create symbolic worlds, and in return, how these worldsshape individual behaviors.[2]It is a framework that helps understand how society is preserved and created through repeated interactions between individuals
Emic
Local
Cf etic =generalising
