Transcript Philosophy of Science Instructor: Julian Hasford Teaching Assistant: Keith Adamson PS398 Qualitative Methods in Psychology January 13, 2009

Philosophy of Science
Instructor: Julian Hasford
Teaching Assistant: Keith Adamson
PS398 Qualitative Methods in Psychology
January 13, 2009
AGENDA
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Glossary: Post-Modernism
Review
Lecture: Philosophy of Science
Memoing Exercise
Next Class…
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• By the end of this session, you should be
able to:
– Analyze the main components of qualitative
and quantitative research
– Discuss the philosophical assumptions (and
logic) of various scientific paradigms
– Analyze how philosophical paradigms
influence research method and substance
– Articulate a personal stance
POST-MODERNISM
• Definition
– Intellectual movement that challenges modernist
conceptions (“grand narratives”) of science, truth, and
objectivity (Gergen, 2000; Patton, 2002)
– Language can not fully capture truth or reality (Crisis
of Representation)
– Argues that truth is constructed through language,
and language constructed through cultural processes
(language games, consensus, power)
– Science is social constructed
– Values multiple truths
POST-MODERNISM
• Methodological/Theoretical Significance
– Influential in social sciences and humanities
(Psychology slower to adopt than other disciplines)
(Gergen, 2000)
– Research focuses on social construction of reality
through language, symbols, metaphors, etc.
– Phenomena treated as text
– Analysis through deconstruction (take apart text to
expose hidden assumptions, contradictions,
ideological interests) (Patton, 2002)
POST-MODERNISM
• Methodological/Theoretical Significance
– Conclusions are localized, tentative, tolerate
dissensus (Johnson & Cassell, 2001)
– Reflexivity (esp. Epistemological)
– Influenced discourse analysis and narrative
methodological orientations
– Risk of extreme moral or epistemological
relativism, which can justify oppression or
undermine value of all knowledge
POST-MODERNISM
• Example
– Examines implications of post-modernism for the discipline of
work psychology
– Work psychology dominated by positivism, excludes subjectivity
(Qualitative approaches still based on positivist understanding)
– Limits what is known about work, limits reflexivity in psychology
research and practice
– Postmodernists erode apparently self-evident meta-narratives
through:
• Identifying particular ways of seeing and acting that a discourse
takes and excludes;
• Analysing social processes that make it possible for such a
discourse to be historically constituted
• Analysing how it is reconstituted into new discursive formations
• Identifying the effects of such a discourse upon people.
POST-MODERNISM
• Example
– Discipline and sub-disciplines of work psychology
seen as discourses that are constructed to define
legitimate work psychology that exclude non-qualified
members and restrict acceptable forms of knowledge
– Phenomena such as stress, personality, motivation
not seen as real objects, but as linguistic constructs
taken to be real and produced by discipline
• Examine how constructs stress come about (stressologists
industry)
– Human Resource discourse found to reflect
masculine regimes of rationality that exclude and
suppress women as irrational (management selection
tests based on masculine norms)
POST-MODERNISM
• References
Gergen, K. (2000). Psychology in postmodern context.
American Psychologist, 56(10), 803-813.
Johnson, P. & Cassell, C. (2001). Epistemology and
work psychology: New agendas. Journal of
Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74,
125-143
Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative Research & Evaluation
Methods (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage
Publications.
RE(VIEW)
• Strategies of Research (Methodologies)
– Goals
– Design Strategies
• Control over phenomena?
• Use of predetermined categories?
• Sampling?
– Data Collection Strategies
• Nature of data and instruments?
• Research Relationship?
– Analysis Strategies
• Reasoning process?
• Emphasis? Goals?
• Role of researcher in analysis?
RE(VIEW)
• Quantitative Strategy
– Goals
– Design Strategies
• Experiment
• Randomization
• Probability Sampling
– Data Collection Strategies
• Quantitative Data
• Distance & Objectivity
• Reductionist
– Analysis Strategies
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Hypothetical-Deductive: begins with hypotheses
Statistical verification & Generalization
Reductionist & Mechanistic
Context-free (Control)
RE(VIEW)
• Qualitative Strategies
– Goals
– Design Strategies
• Naturalistic
• Emergent/flexible
• Purposeful sampling
– Data Collection Strategies
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Qualitative data
Personal engagement
Empathic neutrality
Dynamic Systems
– Analysis Strategies
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Unique case orientation
Inductive analysis & Creative synthesis
Holistic
Context
Reflexivity
REVIEW
Purpose / Focus
Design
Data Collection
Analysis
Qualitative
Quantitative
Understanding (Verstehen)
Subjectivity
Social processes
Ideographic
Naturalistic
Emergent
Purposeful Sampling
Explanation (cause-effect)
Prediction
Control
Nomothetic
Mechanistic/ Reductionist
Experimental
Control
Randomization (Probability Sampling)
Numerical Data
Objective
Qualitative Data
Personal Engagement (Researcher is Instrument)
Empathic Neutrality
Unique-case orientation
Inductive
Holistic
Context
Reflexivity
Generalization
Hypothetico-Deductive
Verification
Context-free
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• What is philosophy of science?
– Conceptual roots undergirding the quest for
knowledge
– Fundamental beliefs or assumptions about
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Ontology (the nature of reality and being)
Epistemology (the study of knowledge)
Axiology (the role of values in the research process)
Methodology (the process and procedures of research)
Rhetorical structure (the language of the research) and
presentation of the research)
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Why think about philosophy of science?
– Increases clarity of research purpose
– Enhances reflexivity
– Broadens and deepens theoretical sensitivity
– Increases quality and rigor
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Science
– Definition
• Systematic collection and analysis of data
• Create knowledge and solve problems
– Empiricism
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Paradigms
– Set of interrelated assumptions about the world which
provides a philosophical and conceptual framework
for the organized study of that world (Filstead, 1979 in
Patton, 2002)
• Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology, Axiology, Rhetorical
Structure
– Major Paradigms
• Reality-oriented
• Social Constructionist
• Critical-Ideological
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Reality-oriented Paradigms
– Belief in external reality, where events result from underlying
mechanisms or structures
– Objectivity is desirable
– Goals are explanation, laws, prediction, control
– Variations
• Positivism (Comte)
– Real knowledge based on claims that are verifiable by direct experience
(mathematical formulas); distinguish “positive knowledge” (empirically based) from
theology and metaphysics (based on fallible human reason and belief)
• Post-positivist (Popper)
– Human ability to gain real knowledge is limited. Falsification over verification as
criteria for assessing claims
• Realism
– Similar to post-positivism. Recognize subjectivity and takes pragmatic rather
formalistic approach to research. No difference between qualitative and
quantitative methods.
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Social Constructionist Paradigms
– Believe in multiple, equally valid realities
(subjective and socially constructed)
– Goals are understanding lived experience
(verstehen)
– Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Critical Paradigms
- Believe that reality mediated by power
relations within social, historical contexts
– Goals are emancipation and transformation
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Ontology
– Focus
• Nature of being and reality
• What can be known
– Paradigmatic
• Positivism: One true external reality, operates by
universal laws, can be known with some certainty
• Constructivism
• Critical
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Epistemology
– Focus
• Theories of Knowledge (how we know, who can
know)
• Relationship between Knower and Known
– Paradigmatic
• Positivism
• Constructivism
• Critical
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Methodology (and Methods)
– Focus
• The way of doing research (Design, Data
Collection, Analysis)
• Methods are the how of doing research
– Paradigmatic
• Positivism
• Constructivism
• Critical
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Axiology
– Focus
• The role of values in research
• Standpoint, Research Relationship
– Paradigmatic
• Positivism
• Constructivism
• Critical
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Rhetorical Structure
– Focus
• Language
• Voice
– Paradigmatic
• Positivism
• Constructivism
• Critical
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Video
– Questions
• What are the author’s claims?
• What epistemological assumptions inform the
author’s claims?
• What epistemological assumptions are the hosts
criticisms based upon?
• Do you agree with the epistemological basis of the
author’s claims and/or the hosts’ criticisms?
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Video
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
• Video
– Questions
• What are the author’s claims?
• What epistemological assumptions inform the
author’s claims?
• What epistemological assumptions are the hosts
criticisms based upon?
• Do you agree with the epistemological basis of the
author’s claims and/or the hosts’ criticisms?
EXERCISE
• Memoing
– Short written documents that are produced
throughout qualitative research
• Document researcher’s analytical process
• Stimulates reflection and analysis
• Promote creative insights through brainstorming
and freewriting
• Develop writing skills
EXERCISE
• Memoing
– Format
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Typed
~1 page (single-spaced)
Title (indicates content) and date
Sentence form. Should be coherent.
EXERCISE
• Instructions
- Write memo on following questions
• What paradigm do you identify most closely with?
Why?
• How would that paradigm influence our approach
to studying money in this class?
– Purpose, Methodology, Axiology
• What are some limitations to what we can know
using this approach?
– Turn to partner and discuss your thoughts
NEXT CLASS…
• Theoretical Orientations