Speaker 1: In this video, we're talking about research philosophy and research paradigms. Specifically, we'll unpack the three most popular research paradigms, that is, positivism, interpretivism, and pragmatism, so that you can one, understand them, and two, apply them to your research project. This particular video is based on an extract from our popular online course, Research Methodology Boot Camp. In the course, we walk you through the basics of research methodology, from the philosophical, fluffy, conceptual stuff, through to the practical and tactical aspects, such as data collection and analysis methods. If you're new to research methodology, you'll definitely want to check that out. As a thank you for watching this video, we've prepared a special discount offer for you, and you can find the link in the description. What is Research Philosophy? Research philosophy is one of those things that students tend to either gloss over, or become utterly perplexed by when undertaking a dissertation or any sort of formal academic research for the first time. And understandably so, it's rather fluffy, conceptual, and up in the air. But that said, understanding and making intentional decisions regarding the philosophical underpinnings of your research is genuinely important, especially within the social sciences. So first, let's clear up some terminology. Research philosophy and research paradigms are terms that tend to be used pretty loosely, sometimes even interchangeably. Broadly speaking, they both refer to the set of beliefs, assumptions, and principles that underlie the way that you approach your study, whether that's a dissertation or thesis or any other sort of academic research project. For example, one philosophical assumption could be that there is an external reality that exists independently of the observer, in other words, a completely objective reality. Whereas an alternative assumption could be that reality is constructed by the observer, in other words, a pretty subjective reality. Naturally, these two assumptions would have quite a big impact on how you approach your study, and we'll talk more about that a little bit later. The research philosophy and research paradigm also encapsulate the nature of the knowledge that you seek to or expect to obtain by undertaking your study. In other words, your philosophy reflects what sort of knowledge and insight you believe you can realistically gain by undertaking your research. For example, you might expect that you could find a really concrete, absolute type of answer to your research question, or you might anticipate that things will turn out to be a bit more nuanced and less directly calculable and measurable. Put another way, it's about whether you expect hard, clean answers or softer, more opaque ones. So, what is the difference then between research philosophy and research paradigm? Well, it depends on who you ask. Different textbooks will present different definitions, with some saying that philosophy is all about the researcher themselves, while the paradigm is about the approach to the study. Others will use the two terms interchangeably, and others will say that research philosophy is the top-level category, and that paradigms are the pre-packaged combinations of philosophical assumptions and expectations. To keep things simple in this video though, we're going to avoid getting tangled up in all of this terminology, and rather we're going to narrow in on the shared focus of these two terms. In other words, that is that they both involve the set of beliefs and assumptions that underlie the way that you approach your study. So, with the definitions out of the way, the next logical question is, of course, well, what are the options? What are the paradigms? Well, to be honest, it's a bit of a rabbit hole, as you would expect with pretty much anything philosophically related. And there are many, many different approaches you can take, each with their own perspective on the nature of reality and what can be achieved in terms of knowledge gain. So, to keep things simple, we're going to focus on the big three in this video, and that is positivism, interpretivism, and pragmatism. Understanding these three is really a solid starting point, and in many cases, if not most cases, they'll be all that you really need. So, let's unpack each member of this dynamic trio. First up, let's look at positivism. When you think positivism, think hard sciences, physics, biology, astronomy, that sort of thing. Simply put, positivism is rooted in the belief that knowledge can be obtained through objective observations and measurements. In other words, the positivist philosophy assumes that answers can be found by carefully measuring and analyzing data, particularly numerical data. As a research paradigm, positivism typically manifests in methodologies that make use of quantitative data, and oftentimes, but not always, adopt experimental and quasi-experimental research designs. If this terminology sounds a bit unfamiliar, be sure to check out our videos covering research methodology and research design, and I'll include the links to those in the description. With positivism, the focus is quite often on investigating causal relationships. In other words, understanding which variables affect other variables, and in what way and to what extent. As a result, studies with a positivist research philosophy typically aim for objectivity, for generalizability, and for replicability of findings. That's quite a mouthful, I know, so let's take a look at an example to make this a little more tangible. Assume you wanted to investigate the relationship between a particular dietary supplement and weight loss. In other words, you wanted to find out whether a supplement has a causal link to weight loss. In this case, you could design a randomized control trial, an RCT, where you assign participants to either a control group who don't receive the supplement, or to an intervention group who do receive the supplement. With this design, you could measure each participant's weight before and after the study, and then use various quantitative analysis methods to assess whether there's a statistically significant difference in weight loss between the two groups. As you can see in this example, the underlying assumptions and beliefs revolve around the viewpoint that knowledge and insight can be obtained by carefully controlling the environment, manipulating specific variables, and analyzing the resulting numerical data. Therefore, this sort of study would be considered to have a positivistic research philosophy. This is particularly common for studies within the hard sciences, so much so that research philosophy is often just assumed to be positivistic, and therefore isn't even discussed within the methodology section of the paper. Alright, so next up we've got interpretivism. Now, if you can imagine a spectrum of research paradigms, interpretivism would sit more or less on the opposite side of the spectrum from positivism, the one that we just spoke about. Essentially, interpretivism takes the position that reality is socially constructed. In other words, that reality is subjective and it's constructed by the observer through their experience of it, as opposed to being independent of the observer, which, if you recall, is what positivism assumes. The interpretivist paradigm is typically adopted for studies in which the research aims involve attempting to understand the meanings and interpretations that people assign to their experiences. As a result, these studies often adopt a more qualitative methodology, relying on data collection methods such as interviews, observations, and textual analysis. These types of studies commonly explore complex social phenomena and individual perspectives, which are naturally more subjective and nuanced. That probably sounds a bit fluffy, so let's take a look at an example of the interpretivist approach in action. Let's assume you're interested in understanding the experiences of individuals suffering from chronic pain. In this case, you might conduct in-depth interviews with a group of participants and ask pretty open-ended questions about their pain and its impact on their lives, their coping strategies, and their overall experience of living with pain. You would then transcribe those interviews and analyze the transcripts, perhaps using thematic analysis to identify recurring themes and patterns in the responses. As you can see in this example, the underlying assumptions and beliefs revolve around the viewpoint that insight can be obtained through engaging in conversation and exploring the subjective experiences of people, as opposed to collecting numerical data and trying to measure and calculate all of it. As a result, this sort of study would be said to adopt an interpretivistic research paradigm or philosophy. Naturally, this makes sense because if you're looking to understand people's lived experiences, you have to operate on the assumption that knowledge can be generated by exploring people's viewpoints, as subjective as they might be. Now that we've looked at the two opposing ends of the research philosophy spectrum, that is, positivism on the one side and interpretivism on the other side, you can probably see that both of these positions have their merits and that they both function as sort of different tools for different jobs. More specifically, they lend themselves to different types of research aims, objectives, and research questions. But what happens when your study doesn't fall into a clear-cut category? In other words, when it involves exploring both hard and soft phenomena? Well, that's where pragmatism comes in. As the name suggests, pragmatism takes a more practical and flexible approach, focusing on the usefulness and applicability of research findings, rather than focusing on an all-or-nothing mutually exclusive philosophical position. This allows you, as the researcher, to explore research aims that cross philosophical boundaries, using different perspectives for different aspects of the study. With a pragmatic research philosophy, both qualitative and quantitative methods can play a part, depending on the research questions and the context of the study. This often manifests in studies that adopt a mixed-methods approach, utilizing a mix of different data types and analysis methods. Ultimately, the pragmatist adopts a problem-solving mindset, seeking practical ways to achieve diverse research aims. So, let's look at an example of pragmatism in action. Imagine that you want to investigate how well a new teaching method performs in terms of improving student engagement and, of course, learning outcomes. In this case, you might adopt a mixed-methods approach, which makes use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques. One part of your project could involve comparing standardized test results from an intervention group, in other words, students that received the new teaching method, and a control group, in other words, students that didn't receive that method, that just received the traditional teaching method. Additionally, you might conduct in-person interviews with students from both groups to gather qualitative data on their perceptions of the respective teaching methods. As you can see in this example, the pragmatic approach incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data. This allows the researcher to develop a much more holistic, comprehensive understanding of the teaching method's efficacy and the practical implications, by drawing on a synthesis of both types of data. Naturally, this type of insight is incredibly valuable in this case, as it's essential to understand not just the impact of the teaching method on test results, but also whether the students actually enjoy the process. Now that we've unpacked the big three research paradigms, and to recap, that was positivism on the one side, interpretivism on the other side, and pragmatism sitting somewhere in the middle, hopefully you can see that the research philosophy really underlies all of the methodological decisions that you'll make in your study. So, it's really quite foundational and therefore important to understand. In many ways, it's less a case of you choosing your research philosophy, and more a case of it choosing you, or at least being revealed to you, based on your worldview combined with the nature of your research aims and your research questions. Now, we've covered a lot of ground in this video, so let's do a quick recap. Research philosophy encapsulates the set of beliefs, assumptions, and principles that guide the way that you, as a researcher, approach your study and develop your methodology. Positivism is rooted in the belief that reality is independent of the observer, and consequently that knowledge can be obtained through objective observations and measurements. On the other hand, interpretivism takes the opposing position that reality is subjectively constructed by the observer through their experience of it, rather than being an independent thing. Pragmatism attempts to find some sort of middle ground, focusing on the usefulness and applicability of the research findings, rather than an all-or-nothing philosophical position. If you want to learn more about research philosophy and research methodology, be sure to check out the Grad Coach blog. Alternatively, if you'd like hands-on help with your research methodology, you might want to consider our private coaching service, where we guide you through each step of the research journey, step-by-step. If you got value from this video, please do hit that like button so that more people can find this content, and if you're currently working on a research project, such as a dissertation or thesis, you'll also definitely want to subscribe to the channel for loads of practical tips and tricks to help you fast-track your research journey. Thanks for watching, and until next time, good luck. you