PSYCH 306: Virginia Braun lectures

Paradigm

A framework or set of beliefs that guides how research is imagined, carried out, and understood

• “research culture” —> different types, shaped how we think, what we value, and how we act in the research process

e.g psych research is produced from within multiple different paradigms, scientific paradigm is dominant

Quantitative methods

Ways of gathering and making sense of numerical data often derived from controlled experinemnts

• positivist/post-positivitist paradigms

• researchers (strive to) use the scientific method

Qualitative methods

Ways of gathering and making sense of text/audio/image data usually derived from non-experimental contexts

• constructivist/interprevist paradigms

• researchers strive to describe and understand

Positivist paradigms (postpositivist)

Reality is objective, absolute, and exists independently of our perceptions

• discover universal law or truths

• Scientific method - knowledge is measurable

• Bias is bad - research strives to be neutral or controlled

Dominant paradigm

Non-Positivist Paradigms

Reality is socially constructed, contextual, & multiple

• Understand meaning, experience, and/or challenge power

• Knowledge is relational, subjective, and often co-created

• Qualitative

• Interpretivist, critical, post-qualitative, Kaupapa Maori Research

Different elements across a paradigm

All Owls Eat Mice Most Sundays

• Axiology

• Ontology

• Epistemology

• Methodology

• Methods

• Sources

Axiology

• Definition: The study of values and ethics in research.

• Key question: What is important or worth studying? What values shape this work?

• Example: A researcher using Kaupapa Māori approaches values collective benefit and self-determination.

Ontology

• Definition: The study of what exists — our beliefs about reality.

• Key question: Is there one truth or multiple truths? Is reality fixed or constructed?

• Example: A positivist believes in one objective reality; a constructionist believes reality is shaped by human experience.

Epistemology

• Definition: The study of knowledge – how it’s created, and who can create it.

• Key question: What counts as knowledge, and how is it gained?

• Example: A scientific researcher gathers knowledge through measurable observation; an Indigenous researcher may value knowledge passed through story or whakapapa.

Methodology

• Definition: The strategy or plan behind the research – connects your philosophy to your methods.

• Key question: What kind of approach guides how we collect and analyze data?

• Example: Participatory action research (PAR), Kaupapa Māori, grounded theory.

Methods

• Definition: The practical tools used to gather and analyze data.

• Key question: What will we do to gather knowledge?

Sources

• Definition: The specific places, people, or texts from which data or insights are drawn.

• Examples: Academic articles, lived experience, whānau interviews, archives, artworks, statistics.

Postpositivist Axiology (values)

• Values objectivity and factual truth

• Seeks separation of politics from knowledge

To establish facts, explain cause-and-effect, develop models, and discover universal truths.

Non-positivist Axiology (values)

• Values are situated, contextual, and partial truths

• Sees power and knowledge as intertwined

To understand, interrogate meaning, enable social change, and explore diverse perspectives.

Postpositivist Ontology & Epistemology (Nature of reality and knowledge)

• Assumes a single, external, knowable reality

• Seeks to discover this reality through rigorous methods

• Emphasises objectivity and controlling for bias

• Knowledge is verifiable through scientific methods

Nonpositivist Ontology & Epistemology (Nature of reality and knowledge)

• Views reality as multiple, contextual, situated, and shaped by social meanings

• Denies foundational, external truths; embraces relativism or critical realism

• Accepts subjectivity and situated knowledge as valid

• Knowledge emerges through interpretation, not detached measurement

Postpositivist Methodology & Methods

• Methodology: controlled, structured, objective

• Aims for generalisability, replicability

• Methods: often quantitative, experimental

• Focus on measurement, modelling, statistics

• Strives for rigorous, unbiased approaches

Non-postpositivist Methodology & Methods

• Methodology: situated, subjective, relational

• Accepts non-generalisability and uniqueness

• Methods: often qualitatuve, interpretive

• Focus on meaning, experience, and deeper understanding

• Also values rigour, but within context-xpecific frameworks

Different purposes of qualitative research

• Can be exploratory & descriptive <>theorised & explanatory

• Range of purposes, can include:

  • Giving voice (to new people/issue)

  • Detailed description (of events/meaning/experience etc)

  • Development of (‘grounded’ or other) theory

  • Identification of discourses, deconstruction, social critique

2 types of qualitative paradigms

• little q

• Big Q

little q qualitative paradigm

• Data type: the use of qualitative data collection and analysis techniques within a (post)positivist framework

• Paradigm: Aligned with post-positivist or even positivist paradigms

• Approach:

  • focuses on objectivity, control, and elimination of bias

  • often quantifies qualitate data (e.g., turning interview themes into frequency counts)

  • analysed using quantitative techniques

Using open-ended survey responses but analysing them with statistical software to find patterns or frequencies

Big Q qualitative research

• Data type: Uses qualitative data within a qualitative methodology.

• Paradigm: Rooted in non-positivist frameworks (e.g., interpretivism, constructivism).

• Approach:

  • Focuses on meaning, context, and subjective experience.

  • Embraces complexity, depth, and reflexivity.

  • Prioritises interpretation over measurement.

• Example: Using in-depth interviews to explore lived experience, analysed through thematic or discourse analysis.

The experimental “camp”

Understanding the world as it is subjectively experienced by individuals.

• To explore how people make sense of their lives, relationships, and environments.

• To give voice to marginalised or underrepresented experiences.

• To provide rich, thick descriptions that reflect complexity, nuance, and depth.

The critical “camp”

• Focus:
  Concerned with how meanings are constructed, maintained, and reproduced—often in ways that uphold power and inequality.

• Purpose:

  • To interrogate taken-for-granted meanings, ideologies, and social norms.

  • To expose how language, discourse, institutions, and knowledge sustain power relations.

  • To enable social transformation by critically examining and challenging existing structures.

Ways to generate qualitative data

• zoom-based focus group

• chat-based interviews

• story completion

• go along interview

• parliamentary select committee hearing submissions

• online qualitative survey

• vlogs

• twitter posts

• body mapping

What is thematic analysis?

a method used in qualitative research to identify, analyse, and report patterns or themes within data

• examining people’s experiences, perspectives, and meanings across a dataset

What are some of the main steps to conduct thematic analysis

6 phase approach

Football Clubs Generate Defensive Right Wingers

• Familiarising yourself with the dataset

• Coding

• Generating initial themes

• Developing and reviewing themes

• Refining, defining, and naming themes

• Writing up (finishing)

What does it mean for a researcher to be “reflexive” (biases, etc. and their effect on how the research goes)

being critically aware of how your own perspectives, biases, values, and position in the world influence every stage of the research process — from the questions you ask to how you interpret the data.

• Acknowledge their assumptions and subjectivity.

• Consider how their background, social position, and experiences shape interactions with participants and influence analysis.

• Document and reflect on their role throughout the project (in field notes, memos, etc.).

• Understand that there is no “bias-free” position – instead of eliminating bias, reflexivity makes its influence transparent.