Students learning about research are expected
to learn what ontology, epistemology and methodology
mean. In this video I am going to explain
and simplify these terms for you.
Before we even get into it you may be asking
yourself: Why do we ask students to learn
this stuff? Students need to learn these terms
and how they apply to research so they can
look at a study and decide for themselves
if it makes sense. Once you understand it
you can critique it and make better decisions
about what should be applied to your practice.
Ontology is a fancy word for beliefs about
reality. Different kinds of research are founded
on different beliefs about what we think truth
is. Do you think that truth even exists? What
is true?
What we think reality is will shape what we
think we can know about reality. That is why
it is important to understand ontology when
you are learning about and critiquing research.
Philosophies about reality can be divided
in different ways. When you are just starting
to learn about research it helps to understand
the two types of ontology that are essentially
opposites: Realism and Relativism. Once you
understand these two types of ontology you
can more easily understand others. In this
video I am only going to talk about realism
and relativism, but in my book I also talk
about critical realism and historical realism
as they apply to different approaches to research.
First let's talk about realism. In a nutshell
realists believe that one truth exists. Truth
does not change. Realists believe that the
truth can be discovered using objective measurements.
Once you find out what the truth is you can
generalize it to other situations.
If you can wrap your head around this view
of reality, even if you don’t totally agree
with it, you will understand why research
that is based on this view of reality is designed
the way that it is. If this is what the researcher
thinks about reality it will influence every
single decision that is made in the study.
The opposite view of reality is called relativism.
If you look at what I just said about realism
you can probably guess that everything relativists
believe is the exact opposite of what realists
believe.
Using that logic you know that relativists
believe in multiple versions of reality - what
is real depends on the meaning you attach
to truth. Truth does not exist without meaning.
Since reality is created by how we see things
it evolves and changes depending on your experiences.
If reality is context bound it cannot be generalized.
It can only be transferred to other similar
contexts.
Epistemology is another fancy word that basically
means what relationship the researcher has
with the research. So, how do we get knowledge?
How do we discover new things?
Ontological beliefs will dictate epistemological
beliefs. Let me say that again in another
way. What the researcher believes about the
nature of reality will dictate the kind of
relationship they think the researcher should
have with whatever is being studied.
There are two basic sets of beliefs about
how we should gather new knowledge.
Some researchers believe that research should
be done in an objective way so that the researcher
does not influence the data that is gathered.
They think that in order to find out what
the truth is the researcher needs to stay
as far away from the research as they can
so that they can get an objective measurement.
This approach is also known as an etic approach
to research. The word etic basically means
taking an outsider’s view of someone else’s
situation.
So, if you use a fishbowl to represent someone’s
situation that is being researched the researcher
taking an etic approach would want to look
at the fishbowl from the outside, measure
it and make observations without ever touching
it.
If we go back to look at the two major opposing
views of reality, which one do you think leads
to this etic approach to conducting research?
That is right, realism! If you think that
truth exists that can be objectively measured
then of course you want to stand back, look
at your fishbowl and try to measure it without
disturbing the reality you are studying.
The opposite approach to research would be
taking an emic approach. An emic approach
is used by researchers that believe in a subjective
approach to reality. Interacting with people
to find out what truth means to them is needed.
So these researchers would want to get inside
the fishbowl. The potential influence of the
researcher on what is being researched is
acknowledged, sometimes avoided or sometimes
even embraced. Interaction is seen as a necessary
thing to gain in-depth understandings of what
is going on.
What ontology do you think leads to this way
to approaching research?
That is right, relativism! Remember that relativists
believe that the truth is created by meanings
and experiences. In order to understand someone’s
experience and the context that shaped it
you need to dig deep and talk to them.
Methodology is another fancy word that means
how knowledge is discovered and analysed in
a systematic way. Don’t confuse methodology
with methods. Yes, they are closely related
but the term methodology refers to philosophies
that guide how knowledge should be gathered.
The term methods, on the other hand, is specific
to a data gathering techniques like interviews
or surveys.
Methodology can be divided based on the ontological
and epistemological beliefs that led to them.
For the purposes of this video I want you
to take a guess what ontology and epistemology
would be linked to an experimental methodology.
Let me give you a hint. The purpose of an
experiment is to prove that one thing caused
another.
That is right, experiments are designed to
discover the truth so they are based on a
realist ontology and an etic epistemology.
How can you tell? Well, they are looking for
one truth. The methodology behind experimental
research is built on the idea that data should
be discovered and analysed in an objective
way. Since they are wanting to be objective
they are looking at the topic from the outside,
which means they are using an etic epistemology.
The experimental methodology is planned in
advance to eliminate the influence of as many
contextual factors as possible since the only
way these researchers believe that truth can
be discovered is to remove it from it’s
context.
Quantitative researchers want to make generalizations
based on their results. An experiment uses
a deductive approach to analysis. That means
that the study will start with a theory. From
that theory hypotheses will be developed.
You normally see the hypotheses explicitly
stated at the beginning of the methodology
section or just before it. These hypotheses
are then tested. Specific data is collected
and analysed to either prove or disprove the
original hypothesis.
Since the experimental research is designed
to be objective the methods in an experiment
will likely include surveys and other objective
measurements like weight, height, blood pressure
and so on.
How about another example. What ontological
and epistemological beliefs lead to a phenomenological
study? Let me give you another hint … phenomenology
is designed to explore lived experiences.
Often researchers will do in-depth interviews
with people to collect information and understand
the context of the experience.
I hope you picked up on the keywords in that
question. Experiences, in-depth, interviews,
context … all of these words only make sense
if the researcher is using a relativist ontology.
The fact that interviews are being done to
explore and understand the context of a situation
means an emic epistemology is being used.
In a phenomenological methodology research
design decisions are made based on complex
philosophies about how data should be collected
and analysed. But basically they start talking
to participants to gather as much specific
information as they can about a situation.
Then they look for patterns or common findings
in their data. From those patterns tentative
hypotheses are created even though they are
not usually labeled as hypotheses in the actual
study because that is a quantitative term.
These hypotheses are used to promote more
research and eventually general conclusions
or theories are developed. When results are
presented they are always linked to the context
that was studied. This kind of logic that
is most commonly (but not always) associated
with qualitative research is called inductive
reasoning.
Remember, your ontology dictates your epistemology
which dictates your methodology which dictates
your methods. All of this needs to make sense
for the question you are asking since in reality
the question drives everything. If you can
understand the basics of realism and relativism
you can use logic to match everything else
about research epistemology and methodology
to the appropriate paradigm as long as you
know what the other terms mean.
Let’s say you are looking at another article
and you notice that they are describing patterns
among a large group of people using statistics.
If you had to guess, what do you think the
ontology and epistemology that lead to this
approach is?
Most times the article will explicitly tell
you if it is quantitative or qualitative , but
sometimes it won’t. Another way to tell
if your methodology is quantitative or qualitative
in nature is to look at the use of statistics
and the sample size.
Typically quantitative research uses statistics
and large sample sizes.
Qualitative research on the other hand uses
smaller sample sizes and thematic analysis.
Sometimes it is more complicated than that
so make sure you look beyond the sample and
statistics to confirm your guess.
Do you think that makes sense based on what
we have discussed so far? Please comment below
to let me know if you can make sense of the
reasoning.
I hope you have found this video helpful.
For more about the basics of this complex
terminology please read my book and let me
know if you have any other questions. I also
have a few other videos about research philosophy
you might want to check out. Sometimes all
you need to do to understand something is
to hear it explained in a few different ways.
That is why I have multiple videos on this
topic.
If you take a moment to explore my channel
you will see that I have other videos on this
same topic that explain things in other ways.
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