Analysis of the Epistemological Position - Assignment Example

Name: Course: Institution: Tutor: Question Responses Question 1 i. Epistemology is the study of knowledge and justified belief. As a study of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with establishing the sufficient and necessary conditions of knowledge, its sources, structure and limits. As a study of justified belief, epistemology is concerned with understanding the concept of justification and how justified beliefs are justified. More broadly, epistemology is concerned with issues about creation and dissemination of knowledge in particular areas of inquiry. It attempts to distinguish between adequate knowledge and inadequate knowledge. This translates into the issue of scientific methodology about how theories or models can be developed that are better than other models. ii. The epistemological position of objectivism holds that all human knowledge can be reached through reason, the mental faculty of understanding the world logically and abstractly. Essentially, the basis of human knowledge is the awareness that human beings get through their physical senses. As the mental abilities develop, human beings are able to recall memories and can form images in their minds. The ability to grasp reality as abstract concepts and principles is the basis of reason as a human capacity. On the other hand, the constructivism position holds that knowledge is basically a combination of human constructs and not a neutral discovery of objective truth. This epistemological position refutes the idea that there is an objective truth that waits to be discovered. It rather holds that all truth and meanings are constructed out of the engagement of human mind with the world (Pini, 2002). Question 2 i. Positivism is a quantitative, empirical approach in which hypothesis testing (with deductions from theory) is used to investigate relationships and facts which are generalizable to a population. This includes logical empiricism, behaviouralism, and covering law models. Although there are different theoretical positions of positivism, this approach mostly includes a fair distinction between research and theory and includes fundamentals with both deduction and induction. The Interpretivism approach holds that research strategies for social sciences must respect the differences between people and the objects that are studied in natural science. Hence, interpretivism is an epistemological opposite of positivism. Interpretivists believe that the study of the social world needs a different perspective of research procedures and that it must reflect the dissimilarity from human to the world of nature (Berger & Ezzy, 2007). ii. The feminist stance seeks to understand the experience of women in a culture that is largely patriarchal. Like other new paradigm sciences, the feminist stance begins from personal experiences of uneasiness about the way things are and the way one may prefer them to be. Essentially, the largest proportion of feminist researches has been focused on giving women a reason to contribute actively in the society through their unique experiences. In terms of epistemological approach to research, the feminist stance could actually mean developing an understanding of the discrepancies in the status of men and women in the society. Question 3: Ethnographical Research Approach Ethnographic research is a qualitative approach that studies the cultural patterns and perspectives of people in their natural setting. The main purpose of ethnographic research is to describe and interpret the culture of a group over time in order to understand the group’s shared beliefs, language and behaviours. Ethnographic research is based on the consideration that culture is the basis of shared beliefs, attitudes, concepts and values and that all these can be attributed to the members of the group. This kind of researchers underscores a given community’s position in the society. Question 4 i. Getting an informed consent is a vital aspect in any research process. Consent forms are used by researchers to educate research participants about the importance of research and why they should participate in the research. The forms are used to show that the subjects have willfully accepted to participate in the research and that they were not coerced or intimidated in any other way. Consent form includes basic elements of the research participants and can be used in future to document or facilitate clarification of any future questions about the consenting process. ii. There are particular situations where it is difficult to obtain informed consent. One of these situations involves researches dealing with biological samples from participants such as blood. In most cases, research participants may find it difficult to understand the rationale for collecting samples especially from individuals who are well. Another situation is when there is no optimum trust between the researcher and the study subjects. It is through trust that the research participants or the community can be willing to take part in the research. Therefore, building trust is an important ethical consideration that can make it easy to obtain informed consent (Bouma & Ling, 2004). iii. The view that the end justifies the means has no application in social research. This is because all aspects of any research process have to follow certain procedures and techniques in order for the research to be valid, reliable and accurate. Therefore, not every means can be used to carry out any research. Ideally, different researches require different philosophical approaches and it is a fact that these approaches might not be applicable in all researches. In any research study, there are three important principles that are relevant to the ethical practice of using human subjects. These are: respect for people; justice and beneficence. If the means or approach taken in conducting the research cannot observe the three principles above, then the end results cannot be relied upon to give a true reflection of the research phenomenon. Therefore, it is the case that the means justifies the end in social research and not vice versa. iv. Since the research takes place among members of an indigenous or minority community, it is important to take into account the fact that the research does not make the community look inferior to other community. It is also important to show respect for the community’s culture, values and beliefs. Another important ethical consideration is to ensure that the goals of the research are clear to the members of the community in which the research is undertaken. It is also important to determine whether the community would prefer to be named in the final written report of the research or whether it would prefer to be given a pseudonym. Lastly, the researcher must ensure that the research and its findings do not harm or exploit the community in which the research is done. Question 5 i. Reliability and Validity Reliability refers to the extent to which a research experiment or test yields the same information or results on repeated trials. This means that independent observers should be able to obtain same results if they replicate the research procedures. Research reliability helps researchers to draw conclusions about a research phenomenon or answer questions about a research problem. The fundamental logic in research reliability is that significant results must be more than just a one-off finding and should be inherently repeatable. Later researchers should be able to obtain the same results if they perform the same experiment under same conditions (Banerjee & Osuri, 2000). On the other hand, research validity refers to the extent to which the findings of a research study accurately reflect the specific concept that the researcher is investigating. The difference between reliability and validity is that while reliability is concerned with the accuracy of the actual measuring procedure or equipment, validity is concerned with the research’s success in measuring what the researcher intends to measure. Validity can be external or internal. Internal validity refers to the extent to which the results of a study are transferable or generalizable. Internal validity refers to whether the research has taken into account the possibility of alternative explanations for the causal relationships that is explored. ii. Quantitative and Qualitative Quantitative research refers to the research in which the data involved can be analyzed in terms of numbers. Generally, quantitative research is based directly on its original plans and its results can be readily analyse and interpreted. This kind of research is more responsive to its subjects because it is concerned with the collection and analysis of data about in numeric form. Quantitative research tends to emphasize relatively large scale and representative data sets. On the other hand, qualitative research is concerned with collection and analysis of data in as many forms as possible, chiefly non-numeric. This type of research focuses on exploring smaller numbers of instances in small details as possible (Bammer, Hall, Hamilton & Ali, 2002). Generally, qualitative research is used to study people’s beliefs, attitudes, experiences, interactions and behaviours. It generates non-numerical data which is used to study relationships between phenomenons. For instance, qualitative research can be used to study the patient’s description of pain rather than to measure pain. Some of the techniques that are widely used in qualitative research include in-depth interviews and focus group interviews. Quantitative research brings about numerical data or data which can be converted to numbers in order to understanding causal relationships between phenomenons. References Bammer, G., Hall, W., Hamilton, M. and Ali, R 2002, 'Harm Minimization in a Prohibition Context', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 582, no. 1, p. 80-93. Banerjee, S. and Osuri G 2000, 'Silences of the Media: Whiting Out Aboriginality in Making News and Making History', Media, Culture and Society, vol. 22, no. 3, p. 263-84. Berger, H and Ezzy, D 2007, Teenage Witches. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press Bouma, G. and Ling, R. 2004, The Research Process, 5th edn. South Melbourne, Melbourne University Press. Mason, J 1996, Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications. Pini, B 2002, Gender and Power: The Exclusion ofWomen from Agri Political Leadership: A Case Study of the Australian Sugar Industry, Sociologia Ruralis, vol. 42, no. 1, p. 45-60. Read More