The Role of Philosophical Inquiry - Assignment Example

? Philosophy Inquiry—Research Proposal Module Module ID: Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework and Research Questions Chapter three of a qualitative study looks for applying an in-depth investigation of the conceptual framework, which discusses the theories have been articulated on the topics same or similar to the study under consideration. Theories actually are the source of presenting and providing profound insight into the phenomena under analysis, on the basis of which the research work is being conducted. Leedy & Ormrod assert a theory as an organized body of concepts and principles intended to explain a particular phenomenon” (2005:4). Consequently, a theoretical framework consists of various concepts, which serve as the building blocks during the process of developing a theory on the basis of deep observation of natural, physical or social phenomena under exploration during a research process. Aristotle refuses to imitate a theory that has been formulated without empirical estimation of regular and in-depth observation of the universal facts and realities (Thomas & Thomas, 1960). Turner opines theory as a way to answering the questions, which consists of concepts, variables, statements and formats (1978:4). Consequently, the conceptual framework encompasses all the issues related to the qualitative study in its vast fold. The imperative significance of theories is evident during a research process, because of the very fact that they turn out to be supportive in respect of inviting curiosity, establishing questions and the would-be respondents of these enquiries, field and area of investigation, and potential outcomes of the research work. For instance, social conflict theory vehemently suggests several dimensions of estimating the nature, scope and magnitude of conflict existing in various societies of the globe (Ritzer, 2007); so the researcher can design his research work in the light of the conflict theory by exploring whether the conflict is based upon religious differences of the masses, or there is involved ethno-racial discrimination behind the feelings of hatred and prejudice among the people. Similarly, the conflict can also be examined keeping in view the socioeconomic condition, political affiliations, religious values, financial position and demographic statistics of the area under analysis. The same is applied to social exchange theory, cognitive development perspective, deviance theories and others. The studies demonstrate various models and paradigms observed and followed by the researchers while developing an outline for conducting a qualitative research. Guba (1990) argues that a paradigm serves as an interpretative framework, which is guided by the set of beliefs and feelings about the world and how it should be understood and studied. In other words, a research paradigm determines and decides the epistemology, ontology and methodology to be applied on the basis of the topic selected for conducting the research work. Epistemology stands for describing the source of knowledge, which includes what is known, and what is going to be explored. The term epistemology has been derived from the Greek notion episteme, which stands for the philosophy of knowledge (Gall, Borg, & Gall, 1996). In simple words, epistemology aims to explore the source and origin of some specific knowledge or information. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge and the process by which knowledge is acquired and validated Epistemology poses the questions including: What is the relationship between the knower and what is known? How do we know what we know? What counts as knowledge? (Krauss, 2005:759). On the other hand, ontology is determined to unveil the realities of the concepts involved in the study. It also discovers the reality about the topic as well as the units of analysis selected for the research. For instance, while discovering the relationship between domestic violence and children’s alienation towards home, ontology would discover the nature and scope of both violation and subsequent alienation. Moreover, if a study is interested in explaining the growth and reproduction level in some specific species, the ontology will first discover the nature, traits and characteristics of the species on the one hand, and the operationalization of the concepts i.e. growth and reproduction on the other by making their comparative analysis with other concepts relevant to them. In addition, axiology concentrates upon the strict observing of ethical values the professionals are expected to observe while conducting the research. In other words, axiology refers to the role of ethics and values in research. The traditional scientific approach seeks research that is value free and unbiased (Klenke, 2008:17). Hence, a good researcher is ethically bound to keep all his personal views and preferences away from the research findings in order to make accurate presentations of the data collected. For instance, a white researcher should not conceal the prejudiced behavior adopted by the white Anglo Saxon population (WASP) while conducting research on the riots appeared in the wake of racial clashes. Similarly, an American researcher is also under obligation to portray the exact scenario of the atrocities committed by the US forces during their invasion and stay in Iraq. However, all researches, according to Cederblom & Paulsen (2005), all labeled and biased ones. Similarly, the methodology includes the selection of the population, and applying sampling procedure with the help of the questions formulated for the research work. It also includes the specific characteristics of the selected population, including age-group, education level, personal and professional activities, the problem they undergo and the suggested remedies for the same. Moreover, methodology also discusses the process through which the researcher will explore the realities about the chosen data. It includes the selection of population, establishment of research question, development of hypothesis and techniques and tools for the collection and analysis of data. For instance, while conducting a research on the effects of sports activities on the study and health of the students, the children studying in schools and colleges and playing sports will be the units of analysis, health level and educational achievements of which could be measured by making a comparative analysis between the athletes and non-athletes. Furthermore, since no study could be conducted simultaneously on the world at large, some specific area, region or population would be chosen in order to confine the research process to the topic and units of analysis. For instance, in order to explore the intensity of racial prejudice, the population of a multiracial society could be selected as units of analysis, which could be confined to one city or state e.g. Chicago, USA, which is cultural diversified society. Moreover, for measuring the magnitude of wife battering and domestic violence, the married women belonging to some particular age group could be the unit of analysis for the study. Since a research paradigm or conceptual framework is regulated by the set of beliefs and feelings about some natural or social phenomena, the same possible categories i.e. epistemology, ontology and methodology are applied. Consequently, epistemology, ontology and methodology work in close association with one another. The most dominant and popular research paradigms include early positivism, modern positivism, conflict paradigm, symbolic interactionsim, ethnomethodology, structural functionalism, feminist paradigms and rational objectivity. Although all the above mentioned paradigms contain profound significance in their nature and scope, yet structural functionalism, enthnomethodology and conflict paradigm appear to be the most attractive ones for me. Attributed to eminent sociologist theorist Talcott Parsons (1902-1979), structural functionalist theoretical paradigm views a social establishment as an organic whole, which could be compared to a real living organism. Since a healthy and integrated living organism consists of a strong and vigorous structure, it also looks for the adequate functioning of all its organs in order to keep the structure well toned and powerful. The same can be compared to a social establishment, structure of which entirely depends upon the smooth running of all its institutions and organizations (Coser, 2002). Structural functionalism seeks strong coherence among different social units and institutions; it is therefore it is determined to see every institution working properly and in an adequate manner. Disturbance in any of the social institutions, structural functionalists view, may put the working of all other institutions at grave stake. For instance, if the religious institution of a country fails to perform its obligation of providing the members of society with proper spiritual guidance, on the basis of the religious and moral values followed by society, the individuals may get indulged into uncontrollable immoral and unethical activities. Eventually, the deviance from abiding the principles of morality will pave the way towards violation of the statues of the prevailing laws as well in the aftermath of the infringement of the moral principles. As a result, anarchical state of affairs will find its sure headway in society, where looting, plundering, rape and homicide may become the routine matters of everyday life; as it happened during the London riots of 2011, where racial prejudice cost six precious lives along with horrible incidents of looting and plundering (Washington Post, 2011). Similarly, if economic institution ceases to work appropriately, and becomes dysfunctional in respect of offering the individuals with the jobs and business opportunities, on the basis of their education, skill and experience, the people may either become lazy, idle, sluggish and ineffective, or would start committing crimes in order to obtain their basic needs and requirements. The same is applied to political and social institutions, where lack of legislation as well as the law enforcing authorities’ incompetency to overcome the law breaking activities and offences may destroy the harmony of society. Similarly, the leadership’s involvement in corruption, lack of its wisdom and foresight, and inability to estimate and solve the problems the masses undergo may also invite chaos and disintegration in all social institutions at large. Since structural functionalist perspective vehemently argues against the chaos and conflict of ideas and interests by declaring it to be harmful, fatal and jeopardizing for the peace, harmony and stability of society, it is aptly compared to social conflict theory, which states struggle between the classes, groups and communities as the pivotal point behind all the developments and transformations taking place in group life. The social conflict theory is attributed to eminent 19th century German philosopher Karl Marx (1818--1883), who is revered as the father of socialism by his followers. The conflict theory emphasizes upon the situation of conflict, prevailing in all social set ups of the globe, and keeps the individuals belonging to divergent ethnic, racial regional, religious and financial groups and communities into making struggle against one another in one way or the other. Although some of the theorists take social conflict as the outcome of ethno-racial hatred as well as prevailing discrimination on the basis of religious differences, gender and sexual orientation too, yet the Marxist perspective unconditionally asserts the conflict as the outcome of the unjust and unequal distribution of income, wealth, opportunities and resources among the members of a society at large. Karl Marx is of the opinion that advent of the industrial revolution in 1750 has deteriorated the lot of the workers, peasants and laborers, due to the very reality that the producers and owners exploit the working class or proletariat by taking huge proportion of income and profit generated from an industrial unit because of the hard and arduous toil made by the laborers. The working stratum, Marxism asserts, renders its services to the industrial unit by making investment of their time and energies, though it receives very trivial and humiliating amount of money or privileges from the profit generated out of their labor. The producers enjoy themselves with the major proportion of the income and profit on the basis of the investment of money they have made in a factory, mill or any other productive unit; while it always becomes very hard for the workers to make even both ends meet. Since the workers are well acquainted with the magnitude of profit, the industrial unit has earned out of the labor they have exercised, on not finding any opportunity of even a respectable share in the huge profit volume, pushes the workers towards the state of frustration, aggravation and alienation consequently. Such feelings of despair and distress drag them far away from paying due heed to their work and work place, which are actually the possession of the owner, and hence are absolutely strangers for the workers. Such an unpleasant and untoward state of affairs leads them to perturbed relationships between the producer and workers, which result into unabated conflict between both the strata. The conflict becomes severe with the passage of time, and ends in the ultimate triumph of the workers, which become successful in taking the control of the organization, as well as in establishing their government in the aftermath of the social conflict between the rich and the poor. The theory maintains imperative validity in its nature and scope, which could be ratified by looking into the history of the nations at large that the downtrodden ultimately turn out to be triumphant during the course of conflict between the social strata. Although Karl Marx is argued as conflict theorist, for presenting his universal conflict perspective, yet the latter sociologists including Max Weber and Dahrendorf also supported the very idea by viewing people’s incompatibility to obtain appropriate income and opportunities the most fundamental reasons behind the state of hostility between privileged and deprived social strata (Turner, 1990). Bartos & Wehr (2002) notice impending state of conflict among privileged and deprived strata and classes of society due to the very fact that one among these classes appears to be taking full advantage of the lavish, sumptuous and luxurious lifestyle, while the rest of the social strata undergo horrible paucity and starvation because of the exploitation of the powerful stratum. Another conceptual paradigm observed by the researchers includes symbolic interactionism, which is articulated and presented by 20th century sociologist-theorist Herbert Blumer in 1937. The doctrine submits to state that almost all sets of social norms, cultural values, religious rituals, traditions, customs and conventions serve as the already suggested and admitted patterns of behavior, which are imitated by all members of society as traditional actions. Since the people expect some specific attitude and behavior during entering into interaction with others, non-compliance from the same at the hands of one or more individuals could invite displeasure and disgust of the overwhelming majority of their society. Symbolic interactionism views applying of signs, gestures, expressions and body language as most important activities during people’s communication with one another. Hence, words, symbols and gestures not only convey the message of one individual to others, but also determine and decide the reaction of others on the foundations of words, expressions and body language delivered during the interaction process. Symbolic interactionists, according to Turner, lay special emphasis on the capacity of humans to create and use symbols. In contrast to other animals, whose symbolic capacities are limited or non-existent, the very essence of humans and the world that they create flows from their ability to symbolically represent each other, objects, ideas, and virtually any phase of their experience (1978:327). For instance, shaking hands with the members of same sex at the eve of meeting is a symbol of courtesy as well as the gesture of goodwill between them in Asian countries, though practicing the same while meeting with the member of opposite gender is regarded as taboo in the traditional Middle Eastern and South Asian societies (Macionis, 2007). However, the gestures like smile, frowning, giggling and kissing etc maintain universal symbolism in their fold. Symbolic interactionism appears to be a valid conceptual framework, which turns out to be highly beneficial in studying a social problem and gathering data from the population. One of the most popular traditions of conducting a social research includes the performing of the same in the open field. It is particularly the case with Ethnomethodological researches. The perspective apparently looks similar to symbolic interactionism in nature, though both of them observe substantial differences in them. Ethnomethodological perspective is attributed to Harold Garfinkel, which is determined to study the methods in and through which members concertedly produce and assemble the features of everyday life in any actual, concrete, and not hypothetical or theoretically depicted settings (Garfinkel 1988:137). However, the perspective looks for exploring the validity of the behavior by witnessing the repetitive occurring of the same behavior in order to assert it as popular social behavior. In case, the behavior under examination is not observed at larger scale, it would confine to some particular groups only. For example, if the gay individuals are observed exchanging the sound of whistling on meeting one another during the ethnographic research in Cape Town, it could not be considered as the way of social interaction among the South African people in general. In addition, some of the social traits are practiced only small proportion of the population, which could not be generalized all and sundry; as wearing of veil by women is popular among some rigid Afghan tribes, though all Muslim women do not practice the same. As a result, vast and somewhat longitudinal research work is required while adopting the ethnomethodological research paradigm. As a researcher, I prefer the symbolic interactionsim as most effective, precise and comprehensive conceptual paradigm, though structural functionalism and conflict perspectives are also attractive for me. One of the most significant advantages of this type of research includes its being reality-based and accurate ones than any other research paradigm. For instance, in structural functionalism, the disturbance in some area or institution of society could be concealed or controlled for the time being; similarly, the nature and intensity of conflict can also be regulated under the thick veil of hegemony. However, the units of analysis are at their original and genuine form during the application of symbolic interactional perspective, and the researcher feels quite at ease while extracting the real traits of the population during the course of conducting the research; as the primitive African tribes cannot conceal the dominant role played by their women, as they remain under the command of wives altogether (Mead, 1935). Another great advantage of the perspective is this that interaction is one of the most essential characteristic of every society, which cannot be avoided altogether. Conflict and functionalism can observe pause for the time being, but interaction between the people cannot be stopped at any cost. Bibliography Blumer, Herbert (2010) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method University of Michigan Prentice Hall 21-276 Cederblom, Jerry & Paulsen, David (2005) Critical Reasoning Wadsworth Publishing; 6 edition Coser, Lewis A. (1977) Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, 2nd Ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2006) Educational Research: An Introduction (8th ed.). New York: Longman. Garfinkel, H. (1988) Evidence for Locally Produced, Naturally Accountable Phenomena of Order, Logic, Reason, Meaning, Method, etc. in and as of the Essential Quiddity of Immortal Ordinary Society (I of IV): 103–9. Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. (1994). Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication Inc. Klenke, Karin (2008). 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