Phylosophical Worldviews (Essay Sample)

Philosophical Worldviews
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Philosophical Worldviews
A research design is defined as a systematic plan used to study a scientific problem. It provides direction for the scientific work. There are three types or approaches of research design; qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods (Creswell 2013). Every research design has its advantages as well as disadvantages that must be considered among other factors during the selection.Philosophical worldview refers to the core set of beliefs that guide actions in research. It is also commonly known as epistemology ontology. Creswell (2013) contains four philosophical worldviews which are within a social scientific research. These include; post-positivism, constructivism, advocacy or participation and pragmatism. The primary distinction of Creswell’s conception from others is that critical/cultural research is seen as different worldview from constructivism.Post-positivism focuses on measurement, empirical observation and verification of the theory. It recognizes that when studying behaviour and actions of humans, we cannot be positive about our knowledge, but we can acquire knowledge through careful measurement and observation of world reality. Constructivism assumes the existence of the desire of individuals to understand they live. It poses that people develop meanings subjectively from their experiences and therefore the goal of research is to rely on how the participants view situations as much as possible. Advocacy or participation focuses on needs of groups and individuals who do not hold positions in the society (powerless) and thus results are queer theory, disability theory, critical theory and feministic perspectives. Pragmatism arises out of actions, consequences and situations and not antecedent conditions. (Creswell 2013)The view that best describes my beliefs through past research experience is constructivism. This is because in my previous research I always have as much as possible tried to tap the correspondents’ view of situations they have experienced and understand well (Newman 1998). They can, therefore, provide accurat...