CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT PARADIGMS IN

THE FIELD OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

Introduction:

Social research is a method used by social scientists and researchers to learn about
people and societies so that they can design products/services that cater to various
needs of the people. Social research is a research conducted by social scientists
following a systematic plan.

Social research is a broad category within which there are many sub classes. As
defined by Young (1949),

“Social research is the systematic method of discovering new facts or verifying old
facts, their sequences, interrelationships, causal explanations, the natural law which
govern them.”

Social research is based on logical and empirical observations. Social research

involves the interaction between ideas and evidence.

The term “paradigm” is often used interchangeably in social science. The design and
conduct of research are shaped by frames of references that researchers use to
organize reasoning and observations. These frames are called paradigms. A paradigm
is an epistemological stance, a paradigm is a set of shared beliefs among members of
a specialty area and, a paradigm as a model example of research.

The term paradigm was first used by Kuhn in his work The Structure of Scientific
revolution he defined research paradigm as “an integrated cluster of substantive
concepts, variables and problems attached with methodological approaches and
tools.”Here he examined the history of the natural sciences to identify patterns of
activities that shape the progress of natural science.

According to English Cambridge dictionary, Paradigm means,

“Model of something, or a very clear and typical example of something.”

“Paradigms are general framework or view points: ‘points from which to view’. They
provide ways of looking at life and are grounded in sets of assumptions about the
nature of reality.”(Bobbie,1998 ).

Paradigm indicates a pattern of model or typical example including cultural themes,

worldviews, ideologies and mindsets. Paradigms are grounded in over-arching,
general assumptions about the world, whereas theories describe more specific
phenomenon.

Paradigms shape our everyday view of the world. Researchers use theory to help
frame their research questions and to help them make sense of the answers of these
questions. A paradigm tells us how meaning will be constructed from the data we
shall gather based on our individual experiences.

A research paradigm is a model or approach to research that is considered the

standard by a substantial number of researchers in field based on having been both
verified and practiced for a long period of time. According to Kuhn (1970),

A research paradigm is “the set of common beliefs and agreements shared between
scientist about how problems should be understood and addressed.

Social scientists can ground their inquires in any number of paradigms. None is write
or wrong, merely more or less useful in particular situation. They each shape the kind
of theory created for general understanding.

The Researcher finalizes the research topic the next thought is about the approach to
follow the research. A paradigm is a worldview to conduct a research. Paradigm
includes the methodology, approach, ontology and epistemology to conduct the
research. In one paradigm there can be several methodologies and the researcher can
follow anyone of that.

There are three perspectives of different paradigms in the social research. And they
are-

 Ontology

 Epistemology and

 Methodology
Ontology:

The word ontology comes from two Greek words. First one is “Onto” which means existence or
being real. And the second one is “Logia” which means science or study. So, ontology can be
defined as the science or study of existence or being or reality. Ontology deals with the nature of
reality. It is a belief system that reflects an interpretation by an individual about what constitutes
a fact or phenomena. Tom Gruber defined ontology as: “An ontology is an explicit specification
of a conceptualization.”

In qualitative research, researchers deal with the idea of multiple realities. The term “multiple
realities” depends on two things- cause and effects. For example, if a student died by suicide.
There will be many perspectives about his death. Some people will say, he has attempt suicide
because of the poor financial condition of his/her family. Some will say, he has attempt suicide
because of pressure of study. So, there are multiple perspectives as well as multiple realities.

When the researchers go to the field. They do not go there with independent or empty mind. As a
human being they are tied with some values and notions though a researcher is expected to be
biased free. So different researchers adopt different realities.

In the context of qualitative research, researchers collect multiple evidence in relation to the
problem. They talk to different people with different perspective in relation to the reality. For
example, if a researcher asks some respondents about the suicide of the student that given above,
one will say something, other will say something different from the first one. Because they have
different perspectives.

Epistemology:
Among four philosophical assumption, one of them is Epistemology. Epistemology is a Greek
word, which come from Greek drive “Episteme “its means in English Knowledge. It study the
nature of knowledge, epistemic justification, the rationality of beliefs (www.wikipedia.com
/epistemology) the theory of the knowledge, especially its methods, validity, scope, and the
distinction between justifying, believes and opinion. It is mainly studying the potentiality of the
knowledge of human beings (www.researchgate.net). Here we briefly discus about the
epistemological assumption, When a researchers conducting qualitative researchers study means
that researchers try to get as close as possible to the participants being studied. Therefore,
subjective evidence is assembled based on individual views. This is how knowledge is known—
through the subjective experiences of people. It becomes important, then, to conduct studies in
the “field,” where the participants live and work—these are important contexts for
understanding what the participants are saying. The longer researchers stay in the “field” or get
to know the participants, the more they “know what they know” from firsthand information.
For example, a good ethnography requires prolonged stay at the research site (Wolcott, 2008a).
In short, the researcher tries to minimize the “distance” or “objective separateness” (Guba &
Lincoln, 1988, p. 94) between himself or herself and those being researched.

When the investigator or researchers conducting researches or collecting data for qualitative
researches they must have to knowledge about epistemology because of when the conducting
researches for studying an object must have to a capabilities to study it or understand it
.Epistemology is the not only matter of study but also observing. It is involves finding reality and
seeks to discover what is known and how is be known .It is mainly finding from more data to a
valid data and give up invalid data. It is mainly work for give up the falsehood and finding the
truth, where from we obtain knowledge. Accordingly, without epistemology, human beings
would have no reason to believe in their thought and action. (www.study.com). yeah its truth
many philosophers supposed to that be knowledge come from reason.

By looking at the relationship between a subject and an object, we can explore the idea of
epistemology and how it influences research design. Objectivist epistemology assumes that
reality exists outside, or independently, of the individual mind. Objectivist research is useful in
providing reliability (consistency of results obtained) and external validity (applicability of the
results to other contexts).that is why need to study epistemology because of its finding truth.

Constructionist epistemology rejects the idea that objective ‘truth’ exists and is waiting to be
discovered. Instead, ‘truth’, or meaning, arises in and out of our engagement with the realities in
our world. That is, a ‘real world’ does not preexist independently of human activity or symbolic
language. The value of constructionist research is in generating contextual understandings of a
defined topic or problem. Constructionist epistemology always want to find data on the basic of
the contextual problem and its solution from real worlds. That is why here from coming valid
data.

Subjectivist epistemology relates to the idea that reality can be expressed in a range of symbol
and language systems, and is stretched and shaped to fit the purposes of individuals such that
people impose meaning on the world and interpret it in a way that makes sense to them. For
example, a scuba diver might interpret a shadow in the water according to whether they were
alerted to a shark in the area (the shark), waiting for a boat (the boat), or expecting a change in
the weather (clouds). The value of subjectivist research is in revealing how an individual’s
experience shapes their perception of the world. Here also work on others important factor is
observation of individual real worlds and his data so we can saying it we get here from correct
data.

Methodology:

A procedure for selecting the methods and the particular forms in where the methods are applied
are provided by methodology. Crotty defines methodology as “the strategy, plan of action,
process or design lying behind the choice and use of particular methods and linking the choice
and use of methods to the desired outcomes.”

Qualitative methodology enriches understanding of the reasons behind things are and the way
they are in the social world, and the reason of people acting the ways they do. It is grounded on
interpretivist paradigm. It is concerned with one’s way of understanding the meaning of social
affairs. Inductive logic is used by researcher who goes through the topic within its context by
studying, and tries an emerging design. In social science, researcher can prefer the methodology
that relies on philosophical contexts, which are concerned with ontology and epistemology.
Researcher goes for with particular things that are detailed before making generalized describing
the detailed things of the study, and constantly re-examines questions that are experienced from
the field. Due to the sudden change of research question sometimes, data collection techniques
are needed to be modified for the better understanding of the research problem according the
change. When it is the time of analyzing the data, the researcher goes for a path of analyzing the
data so that an increasingly detailed knowledge which topic has been studied can be developed.

Major Paradigms in the Field Of Social Research:

A paradigm is a description of the world of human behavior. It is a description of society. It is a

set of common belief and agreements shared between researchers about how problems should be
understood and addressed.

There are 5 major paradigms in the field of social research. They are:

 Positivism

 Post-positivism.

 Constructivism

 Critical Theory

 Interpretivism

Now, these paradigms are explained below:

1.Positivism:

The term positivism refers to a branch of philosophy that rose to prominence during the early
19th century, because of the works of the French philosopher Auguste Comte. Positivism
depends on measurable observations that leads to statistical analyses. It has an atomistic,
ontological view of the world as comprising discrete, noticeable elements and events that interact
in a noticeable, determined and regular manner.

The ontological position of positivists is that of realism. Positivists oppose to understand the
social world like the natural world. The role of the researcher is limited to data collection and
Interpretation in an objective way in positivism. Researchers warn that if a person assume a
positivist approach to his study, then it is his belief that he is independent of his research and his
research can be purely objective. In other words, studies with positivist paradigm are based
purely on facts and consider the world to be external and objective.

The epistemological position of positivists is that of objectivism. Researcher come in as

objective observers to study phenomena that exist, without any interference.

Positivist’s methodology relies heavily on experimentation. Hypothesis are put forward in

question form about the ethological relation between phenomena.

Now ‘Positivism’ is describing according to the theme of Ontology, Epistemology and

Methodology below:

 Ontology of Positivism: In Positivism, ontology means ‘what is reality’. There is a single

reality or truth. It is the knowledge of the ‘way things are’ is summarized in the form of time
and context- free generalization, some of which take the form of cause effects laws. The
basic situation of the paradigm is argued to be both diminutions and deterministic.

 Epistemology of Positivism: Epistemology means ‘How can we know reality’. In

positivism, reality can be measured and hence the focus is on reliable and valid tools to
obtain that. The researcher to be capable of studying the object without influencing it or
being influenced by it. Inquiry takes place as through a one way mirror. Values and Norms
are prevented from influencing outcome as long as the performed procedure, are strictly
followed.

 Methodology of Positivism: Methodology means ‘How do we go about finding out the

knowledge’. In positivism, methodology is an experimental research or a survey research.
Questions are narrated in propositional form and subjected to experimental test to verify
 them. Possible mixed conditions must be carefully controlled to prevent outcomes from
being unreasonably influenced.

2.Post-Positivism

Post means after. So, Post-Positivism means, “an extension and adaptatoin or a development of
the ideas that came in after it’s predecessor, Positivism”.

According to the educational researchers, Positivism isn’t enough to fulfill all the requirements
for social science’s research as it is limited to the factual knowledge and it’s interpretation in an
objective way. So,the researchers of social sciences and education came with the idea of a new
paradigm named post-positivism which is a mixture of both positivism and interpretivism (Petter
& Gallivan and 2004 Deluca, Gallivan, Kock, 2008).

Post-positivism is implicitly an assessment of the nature of reality which describes an approach

to knowledge.

Robert Dubin describes the basic componenrts of a postpositivist theory as being composed of
basic units or ideas and topics of interest,”laws of interactions” among the “units”,and a
description of the “boundaries” for the theory.

According to Thomas Kuhn, a post positivist theory canbe assessed on the basis of whether it is
“accurate”,”consistent”, “has broad scope”, “parsmonous”, and “fruitfuil”.

Post-positivist researchers believe in multiple realities and make their assessment considering
different perspectives of an interviewee. Inquiry is considered as a series of logically related
steps by them.Post-positivism recognizes that all observation is falliable and has error .

For Instance, If someone is conducting a research on the affect of corona virus in Dhaka city,
he/she will approach the frontliners and get feedback from them and after incorporating all the
ideas or perceptions from them the researcher will decide one path that has been propounded for
all the frontliners in order to continue the further research; and that is Post-positivism.

 Ontology of Post-Positivism: Ontology means critical realism.It relates to the nature of

reality and it’s characteristics.It says that, human beings have limited capabilities.
Researcher’s are not perfect. So, it is assumed that reality exist but it is only imperfectly
apprehendable because of flawed human intellectual mechanisms and the fundamentally
intractable nature of phenomena.
 Epistemology of Post-Positivism : Epistemology is also called “ modified dualist” or
“objectivist”. It is mainly the approximation of reality. Generally dualism is abandoned since
it is impossible to maintain. But objectivity is considered as a “regulatory ideal”.
Epistemology gives the benifit of considering the replicated findings true but it always
subject to falsification.

 Methodology of Post-Positivism: Methodology uses qualitative methods to accomplish it’s

objectives through frequency and statistics. It focuses on critical multiplism and instead of
verifying hypotheses,it goes for the falsifying. In methodology problems like “intra-
paradigm” critiques are re addressed. It aims on doing s an inquiry in more natural settings
And Collecting more situational information. Methodology contributes to the grounded
theory.

3.Constructivism :

Constructivism is a theory based on individual’s perception in terms of knowledge acquiring

rather than learning it through some passively taken information. The learner construct
knowledge as oppose to learning through pre constructed boundaries. In social constructivism, an
individual enhances knowledge by learning and observing from his/her own view and
perception, through that a person develops meaning and understanding of the particular situation.
The meaning shall vary from person to person as different interpretation of the same context are
made. Thus, opening a vast amount of considerations and different perspectives to view. It
affects the researcher’s way of thinking regarding the issue by making it more complex and the
solution more dynamic at the same time. This pattern of acknowledging individual participant’s
view ensures that this worldview is not curved on an individual, rather it is the formulation of
their own interpretation. This view is constructed through historical and cultural norms. This is
achieved by not confining the ideas with some restricted questions, rather it inflicts open end
questions with scope of conveying broader meaning through observation, discussion and
interactions among people. It is more like a contextual based view of conducting research.
Constructivism can be summed up with individual’s perception and experience to make a
constructive view.

 Ontology of Constructivism: Constructivism is based on the realities forged by the

individual’s experience and the accumulation of that is the basis for the researcher to
understand the situation properly. These realities are not made with pre-determined
restrictions rather it is the result of constant evolving. So, it can be determined in the form of
mental constructions of the multiples and they are intangible. Realities are fabricated from
 the experience and society thus making it a local and the involved group of people specific.
This construction cannot be measured or justified as true or false because of that, so it can be
deducted as other parameters such as less or more informed and sophistication. As this
construction is based on open ended approach, as a result it is very flexible and easily
alterable and it directly affects the realities this construction is based on. This concept cuts a
clear line with nominalism and idealism as it varies from those two.

 Epistemology of Constructivism: The methods and validity of this construction and also
the distinction between justified belief and opinion can be denoted as transactional and
subjective. In this construction, researcher heavily depends on the experience, observations
and findings of each individual’s perspective and creates multiple realities. These realities
are then been condensed and shaped into making the construction by approaching and facing
all the problems and enquiries faced by the individual shaping it to be a constructed
proposal. In other words, this construction process is incremental in a sense that researcher
and the observers finding and coherent judgment and interpretation is eventually produced
as the “findings” and it is created on the process rather than beforehand. Therefore, the basic
differences of ontology and epistemology in this regard gets very vague and almost
underminable

 Methodology of Constructivism: The methodology of construction suggests that through

open ended question, emerging approaches method, a collective knowledge is gathered. This
construction is based solely on the interpretation of an individual. As a result, this social
construct turns out as a variable and personal in nature. Additionally, if the construct was to
be improved or changed, it can only be done through collective effort and interaction
between the researchers and investigators and also participants. Only by that social
construction can be refined. In order to interpret these varying constructions, we need
techniques such as conventional hermeneutical techniques. Through that, researchers can
establish an informed and coherent observation ground as the constructions are compared
and contrasted through some set dialect interchanges. These methods will determine and
ensure that the construction based on the personal perception is refined thoroughly and thus
it gets filtered stage by stage through various interchanges and investigation to achieve the
most well informed and appropriate construction which is sophisticated and more
compatible than any other constructions before.
4. Critical Theory:

Basically, Critical theory creates from the works of a group of twentieth century authors who
were from the Institute of Social Research at the University of Frankfurt. The aim of critical
educational research is not only to explain or understand our society but also to change it.
Critical theory is concerned with empowering human beings to cross the obstacles that human
beings faced by race, class, and gender in society. Researchers need to acknowledge their own
power, engage in dialogues, and use theory to interpret social action. Including the scientific
study of social institutions, a critical researcher might explore through interpreting the meanings
of social life. The critical researcher might design, for example, an ethnographic study to include
changes in how people think; encourage people to interact, form networks, become activists etc.
The researcher tries to understand how people form action-oriented groups; and help individuals
examine the conditions of their existence. The end goal of the study might be social theorizing.
Morrow and Brown define it as “the wish to perceive and in some cases, metamorphosis
(through practice) the underlying orders of social life—those social and systemic relations that
form society”. According to critical theory,the design of research has two broad categories:
methodological, in that it affects the ways in which people write and read, and substantive, in the
theories and topics of the investigator. As a study of the manifestations of resistance and state
regulation, it highlights ways in which actors come to terms with and struggle against cultural
forms that dominate them. The aim of inquiry is the critique and transformation of the social,
political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender structures that constraint and exploit humankind,
by engagement in confrontation, even conflict. Advocacy and activism are key concepts. The
inquirer is believed that he/she understands in advance what transformations are needed.
Knowledge consists of a series of structural /historical insights that will be transformed as time
passes.

 Ontology of Critical Theory: The ontology of the critical paradigm is historical realism
(Guba & Lincoln, 1994) which states that reality exists outside the mind, but is historically
constructed. Social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic and gender shape the reality. The
researcher needs to examine it critically bearing in mind the issues of power and politics.
The critical theorists view society as a human construction in need of reconstruction.

 Epistemology of Critical Theory: The critical paradigm epistemology is transactional and

subjective. Critical theory is subjective in that it is assumed that no object can be researched
without being affected by the researcher. Critical educational researchers try to be self-
conscious of their own epistemological presuppositions and communicate them clearly when
entering into an investigation so “no one is confused concerning the epistemological and
political baggage they bring with them to the research site” (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005).
The knowledge is socially and historically constructed within a complex cultural context
.The relationship between the researcher and the participant is interactive with
acknowledging the issues of power and trust. The knowledge is value laden as the researcher
might influence the findings (Ernest,1994;Mertens,2010).
 Methodology of Critical theory: The methodology of the critical paradigm according to
Guba (1990: 25) is “dialogic, transformative; eliminate false consciousness and energize and
facilitate transformation.” As the aim of this paradigm is to bring out change and improve
the studied context, this can be accomplished through a dialectic dialogue between the
researcher and the participants. The dialogue is transformative and accepts the historical and
political backgrounds to bring about change. The critical theory has its own methodology,
“ideology critique, action research and critical ethnography” (Cohen, 2007).

5. Interpretivism:

Interpretivism research mainly depends on the qualitative data because most of the data is
interpreted in a qualitative way.interpretivist use subjective opinions of individuals to interpret
data for the interpretivism research . Interpretivists view invites the researchers to investigate
meaning behind the understanding of human behaviour; interactions and society. This involves
the researchers attempting to develop an in depth subjective understanding of people’s lives.
Interpretivism is all about interpretation of subjectivity and understanding. Interpretivists
researchers main point is to gain in depth insight the lives of respondents to gain an empathetic
understanding of why they act in that way and why they do. So basically qualitative methods of
interpretivism mostly allows close interaction or understanding with the respondents to
understand subjective opinion properly.

Individuals are intricate and complex and different people experiences and understand the same
‘objective reality ‘ in different ways.

Thus, Reality is constructed through the meaning created by individuals or people and their
actions is the reflection of their own perception or opinion.

That is constructionists view point how they view a particular situation and act on the bases of
experiences. Our actions are result of our own meaning or view point of a certain situation not
external forces.interpretivists try to understand human behaviour from the actions or interaction
within the objective reality. Interpretivists researchers try to understand that reality and
interpreted the multiple reality.

The goal of Interpretivists research is to understand and interpret the meaning in human
behaviour rather than to generalize and predict causes and effects.

It is important in interpretivism for the Interpretivists to understand motives;meaning;reasons

and subjective experiences which are time and context bound. In this interpretivism research
Interpretivists discover multiple types of reality which may be complex or unpredictable
subjective opinion’s of individuals about a reality and developing a stable research design may
be little difficult. Interpretivists search for more subjective opinion or knowledge of time and
context from individuals participants to develop a fixed research design. So researchers remains
open to new knowledge throughout the study and let it develop with the help of informants.

 Relativism ontology: In terms of ontology interpretivism quite often takes to relativist

ontology where reality is a relative and multiple thing. It is not a single thing out there
waiting to be discovered rather there are multiple realities that’s are products of mental
constructions. So the reality is something that depends on each individuals ;set of
experiences ;beliefs; understanding and meaningful action. No single external reality can be
seen in the relativism ontology and there is no direct access to real world in interpretivism.

 Subjective epistemology: Interpretivism takes a subjective epistemology focuses on the

specific and concrete seeking to understand specific context. which means that when
researchers enter into the research situation :both researchers and participants influence
each other and they can together construct a reality. It’s not something stable or something
to be measured and discovered but co-construction of the reality by the individual views and
subjective evidence. Reality can be understood through perceived knowledge by the
researcher and participants that’s why it is more personal and interactive mode of data
collection.

 Methodology : In terms of methodology interpretivism concentrate on understanding and

interpretation. Researchers want to experience what they are studying during the research of
interpretivism method. It allows feelings and reason to govern actions . pre understanding is
important to continue the research like how to gain knowledge from the external sources. It
focuses on distinction between facts and values that are judgment less; clear& primarily non
quantitative are influence from both science and personal experiences. In this terms
research is a product of the value of researcher.

By denying subjectivity and objectivity opposition interpretivism agreed upon on the

hermeneutical character of existence. We are the history of ourselves rather than living in time
and through language.
Conclusion:

Paradigms can shape the way we see our everyday world. Researchers around the world use
theory to help frame their research questions and to make sense of the answers to those question.
Applying the four key theories of social work when doing a research is a smart thing to do, but
one will likely have to look for more specific theories about their topic.

It is only logical that one should select the methods and methodology which one finds most
appropriate to investigate the phenomena one sets out to investigate. But selecting an appropriate
research perspective to conduct effective research is not a simple task specifically for new
researchers. The researchers might be distracted because of the popularity of one or the
other particular paradigm in the environment they are in and could end up with an
inappropriate research perspective or invalid or vague findings. It is important for researchers to
select an appropriate research paradigm that suits their environment, their research to launch
their study. But on the other hand it is equally important for them to look for new concepts, ideas
because it will broaden their vision and help them to come up with clear findings, explain
phenomena’s and discover new dimensions to explore.

Paradigm offers new perspectives to explore different issues and make difference to the world of
knowledge, to the world itself. And these perspectives should be explored and used by modern
researchers.

It is to be considered very carefully while conducting research that one should not distort from
their own outlook and force oneself to abide by any particular paradigm just because one can
avoid threat or accusations.
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