Mixed Method: The Ontological And Epistemological Assumptions (Essay Sample)

Mixed Method
Name
Institution
Mixed Method
Mixed method research is a special kind of research that involves collecting data by comparing the analysis of qualitative research and quantitative research. Mixed method research is a very accurate method of investigation, and is highly recommended as a good form of research. Generally, the mixed technique of research mirrors a technique that involves the collection, analyzing and interpretation of both quantitative and qualitative data in either a single study or series of studies on a similar underlying phenomenon. When it comes to the qualitative and quantitative study, the ontological and epistemological assumptions are highly supplemented unlike in the mixed method research. Ontology is a philosophical study of how things exist and how they come about (Michael & Marco, 2009). It is mainly concerned with what human behavior or factors can lead to the existence of certain things that take place in the world. The factors can be political, economic or social factors. There are many ontological assumptions in the case study involving resilience of people with psychiatric disorders. The research is unequivocal on the use of personalized medicine, which was a plays a big part on the recovery process of the patients. The ontological assumption made in the study was that some of the human activities, surroundings, and hobbies enabled the patients to get the resilient to fight their psychiatric disabilities. The resilience in many patients is not coming from a medical perception or some medication prescription given to the patients. This is where the ontological assumption comes to play. The patients’ resilience is coming from a certain personal activity, hence described as personal medicine (Vessel, 2011).
The Ontological and Epistemological Assumptions
Epistemology is the study of what knowledge is and what it is about (Pritchard & Duncard. 2007). Epistemology is usually acted as a bridge between certain beliefs and the actual truth. Epistemology involves researching on people’s opinions, beliefs, and the actual truth so that the beliefs or opinions can be determined as true all false. There are many epistemological assumptions in the case study involving resilience of people with psychiatric disorders. The case study has bridged the gap between the people’s opinion and the truth. The ontological assumptions form the basis of the epistemological assumptions. What is important to note ontological assumptions precedes epistemological assumptions.
The ontological assumption is very vivid in Joe’s case. Joe is a patient with a bipolar disorder, and he acknowledges that sometimes pharmaceuticals or pill medicine is not always the solution. Joe is very categorical that his resilience to get better is not coming from the personal medicine subscribed to the hospital. From the case study, the ontological assumption is that math, which stimulates his brain and is a good mood stabilizer according to works best for some individuals as compared to prescribed medicine. The research also shows for every different individual there are valued social roles and activities that when done give the individuals lives a sense of direction meaning and purpose. From the research, Nadene a schizophrenia patient found out that singing which made other people happy kept her out of the hospital. The ontological assumption from Nadene’s case study was that singing could help someone in the healing process. The case study describes this as personal medicine, which is very effective from Joe and Nadene’s case.
From Nadene’s case study, the research has revealed how doing some social roles raises self-esteem and decreases any symptoms of the disease. Nadene believed that singing in a group kept her out of the hospital and off psychiatric medications. This is just her truth and believes which acts as her motivation for resilience. The epistemological assumption in this is that the research has given knowledge to her beliefs and truths. The research has critically emphasized that some social roles in this case singing can decrease the symptoms of schizophrenia disease. It also expounds on the social roles increasing someone self-esteem can also make eliminate the psychiatric symptoms. In Joe’s case, the research reveals that good medication does not usually involve taking any medication. The research has also called it “personal medicine” as it entirely depends on the person with the disease, not some prescribed medicine. The epistemological assumption in this research is that math is a good mood stabilizer, well in Joe’s case. The main point is that each person should find his or her form of mood stabilizer especially someone suffering from a bipolar disorder. Joe’s perception of math being a mood stabilizer and intellectual stimulator is his own belief, but how true it is, it only seems true to him on a personal level. The research then applies the epistemological assumption of it by bridging the gap of how true math can be as a mood stabilizer with Joe’s belief of math being a mood stabilizer and hence, calling it “personal medicine.”
Modification to Mixed Method Research
The mixed method research allows an individual to use both quantitative and qualitative data, which brings more depth and breadth in corroboration and understanding, while also offsetting the likely weakness that would have been resulted by use of one specific method of data collection. Conducting mixed method research comes with the advantage of triangulation, which allows an individual to identify certain features of a phenomenon more precisely through approaching it from varied vantage points with the help of different techniques and methods (Morse & Niehaus, 2009).
The revised aim of the study is thus to illustrate and understand how people with psychiatric disorders show and respond to resilience capacity in the ways in the ways they use or fail to use psychiatric medications in their lives.
The mixed method of research is to implement a connected triangulation of data which is intended to allow for a simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative data with the aim of identifying dissimilarities, combinations, or convergence between the data upon analysis. Given that the research was qualitative research which employed the use of questionnaires for data collection, the quantitative method of data collection involved a scale for measuring the extent of resilience. The resilience scale will be adopted following the Wagnild & Young Resilience Scale which had 25 items analyzed on a seven-point Likert scale (Brolese, Lessa, Santos, Mendes, Cunha & Rodrigues, 2017). The scale, however, to be employed in the mixed method will have 25 items, but analyzed in a five-point Likert scale; strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neither agree nor disagree (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5). The choice of using the five-point Likert scale over the seven-point Likert scale is in its ease of use. The scale is alienated into three factors: Resolutions of Action and Values, as factor I; Independence and Determination, as factor II; and Self-confidence and Ability to Adapt to Situations, as factor III. The total scores range from 25 to 125 points as examined by factor and total, with high scores representing high resilience.
The sampling strategy used for the mixed research is a group of thirty patients with a psychiatric disorder who are to be sidelined to carry out the study. The table below shows the demographic information on the patients using a simple random sampling of the thirty patients used in extracting the quantitative data.
Age

Number of patients

Gender

10-20 years

7

5-male, 2 female

20-30 years

10

8-female 2-male

30-40 years

6

3-male 3-female

40-50 years

5

2-male 3-female

50-60 years

2

2-male

The qualitative side of the research involves keeping the thirty patients in two quotas based on gender. The table below shows the quota system in the qualitative research.

Male

Female

First quota

10

5

Second quota

10

5

In the qualitative research, the data collection method used surveys. This is because based on the classification used in the research surv...