Day 3 overview

Overview of research paradigms

Eagle and Condor

Deduction and Induction

Modernism and Post-Modernism

Deconstruction

Where we sit

Nga iwi e! Nga iwi e! Kia kotahi ra te Mo-a-na-"nwi"-kiwa e-i-a-i-e -----------

Kia mau ra! Kia mau ra! ki te mana motuhake me te aroha e-i-a-i-e -----------

Wahine ma! Wahine ma! Ma-ra-nga mai, Ma-ra-nga mai, kia kaha e-i-a-i-e -----------

Ta ne ma! Ta ne ma!Whakarongo tautoko kia kaha e-i-a-i-e -----------

Nga iwi e! Nga iwi e! Kia kotahi mai te Moana-"nwi"-kiwa e i-a i-e -----------

All you people! All you people!Be united as one, like the Pacific Ocean.(Cries of joy!) "air-ee-ah-ee-air" Hold on firmly! Hold on firmlyto your inheritance, and to compassion. e-i-a-i-e -----------

All you young women! All you young women rise up, rise up, be stronge-i-a-i-e -----------

All you young men! All you young men!Listen, support, be strong e-i-a-i-e -----------

All you people! All you people! Be united as one, like the Pacific Ocean. e-i-a-i-e -----------

Nga Iwi E

500 years ago the European colonisation of the Americas and the rest of the world begins - the first stirrings of Modernism and powerful research methods that were to shake the foundations of the natural world

Descarte1596-1650

If you would be a real seeker after

truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all

things. 

The Cartesian Split

• Consiousness: I can’t doubt that I doubt “cogito ergo sum” (“I think therefore I am”). The inner reality.

• Perfection I can conceive of the “perfect entity”, therefore there must be one (God)

• A just God There must an “outer reality”, which is stable, measurable and has mathematical properties. God wouldn’t play tricks on us

• Dualism Therefore there is an inner and an outer reality operating under different rules

The connection

between mind and

body

Auguste Comte (1798-

1857) – Sociology &Positivism

PositivismMetaphysical (nature of reality) assumptions • Nature is orderly and regular (measurable); • We can know nature. (Some theorists suggest

that there exists a limit to such knowledge. Up to now, such a limit has not been defined.)

• All natural phenomena have natural causes (Determinism).

• Nothing is self-evident (e.g. the assertion that “2/3” or “√2” is not a rational number – a number that can be written - has to be proved.)

What happens when you divide 3 into 1?

= 0.333333333333333 for ever

you can never write all of it down, but can you prove it?

3 into 1 = 0 with 1 left over 0

3 into 10 = 3 with 1 left over 0.3

3 into 10 = 3 with 1 left over 0.33

3 into 10 = 3 with 1 left over 0.333

There’s always 1 left over.

The square root of 2= 1.4142135623731…..Firstly, assume sqrt(2) is rational, i.e can be represented as

the irreducible fraction m/n where m and n are integers. We have sqrt(2)=m/n. Squaring, and multiplying both sides by n2, we get m2 = 2*n2.

This tells us that m2 is even. Now the only way to get an even square is to have its root also even, because even*even=even and odd*odd=odd. So m must also be even. This means that we can write m = 2*k where k is another integer.

So now we can rewrite m2 = 2*n2 as (2*k)2 = 2*n2 = 4 * k2. Halving both sides of this, we get n2 = 2 * k2.

This tells us that n2 is even. So n must also be even by the same reasoning as given above. So we can write n = 2 * j.

So if m is even and n is even, then m/n is not an irreducible fraction. And this argumentation can go on for ever. So the assumption that sqrt(2) is rational must be wrong, thus sqrt(2) is irrational. Q.E.D.

Positivism

Epistemological (nature of knowledge) assumptions

• Knowledge should only be derived from experience. (Empiricism)

• The meaning of a proposition consists in how it is verified by experience. (Verifiability).

• The application of logical analysis will reach the goal of unified science. (Logicism).

• Sciences should all be unified syntactically and semantically.

Deduction starts with things that we know about the world and builds theories from these facts that we can test by observation

Deductive Logic in Quantitative ResearchPropositions or ‘facts”:

All Granny Smiths are applesAll apples have pips

LogicalReasoning

Construct or theory

All Granny Smiths have pips

EmpiricalInvestigation

Observations Test 100 randomly selectedGranny Smiths for pips

Deduction

the third statement is necessarily true if the rules of logic hold and the first two statements are true

All social creatures are primates

All humans are social creatures

All humans are primates

All primates are social creatures

All humans are social creatures

All humans are primates

If I have appendicitis, I am very sick

I am very sickI have appendicitis

Social Workers are hard working people

Lazy people have unsatisfying lives

Social Workers have satisfying lives

Actual and Estimated production of oil and gas – Peak Oil

1. we have X thousand units of oil and gas left in the ground2. we are using X/10 thousand of units of oil and gas each year3. we will run out of oil and gas in 10 years

Inductive Logic in Qualitative ResearchConcept or Theory

Granny Smiths are a type of appleLogicalReasoning

Narrative aligning the stories

Granny Smiths have a strongresemblance to apples except that theydon’t go red or yellow, they stay green

EmpiricalAnalyses

Observations: Granny Smiths have pips, are crisp,sweet, and green on the outside

Induction is about the process of theory creation. We observe and describe things in the natural world. We look for alignments and create theories about those alignments

Induction

the third statement is probably true if the rules of logic hold and the first two statements are true

I take 20 marbles from a bag

They are all blackAll the marbles in the

bag are black

UFOs leave giant craters where they land

There are giant crater imprints in Oregon

UFOs have landed in Oregon

Lithium causes vomiting in monkeys

Monkeys and humans are primates

Lithium will cause vomiting in humans

Socrates was a great manSocrates had a motherAll great men have

mothers

Annual growth rate = 3.75% - growth doubles every 19 years

3. The Gross World Product will continue to grow at the same rate, meaning that it will be 32 times larger in 2108.

1.Every year the Gross World Product increases by about 3.75%, doubling every 18.7 years2. This increase has occurred consistently for over 57 years

Side view Front view Side view Front view

Top view Top view

John Coleman

Look for an example of apparent deductive logic – starting from propositions and going to observation.

Look for an example of apparent induction – starting from “observations” and creating a proposition or theory.

Focus on the bold areas

Deduction and inductionP1: These scientists know that if they do research that sounds alarms, they will become well known and respected and receive scholarly awards and, very importantly, more research dollars will come flooding their way.

P2: They are environmentalists above all else

Observation: So when these researchers did climate change studies in the late 90's they were eager to produce findings that would be important and be widely noticed and trigger more research funding and at the same time drive their environmental agendas.

O1: Our universities have become somewhat isolated from the rest of us.

O2: I know this group well. My father and my older brother were both PHD-University types. I was raised in the university culture. Any person who spends a decade at a university obtaining a PHD in Meteorology and becomes a research scientist, more likely than not, becomes a part of that single minded culture.

Proposition: They all look askance at the rest of us, certain of their superiority.

Modernism• Positivism, empiricism - a stable singular

observable reality• Strong faith in science and that behaviour is

reducible to physics and chemistry• Technological solutions to problems,

industrialisation, victory over nature• Destruction of religious/cultural/class dogma

/power• Humanistic moral force• Research as defined, structured, quantifiable

process – surveys, experiments, observations

Georges Seurat 1885 -pointillism

atomisation

A.M. Cassandre French, 1901 - 1968Nord Express (North Express), 1927

Celebration of technology

Arthur Charles Radebaugh American, 1906 - 1974Bendix Products, 1937

An advertisement showing a supposedly attractive world

The mechanisation of everything

Gerrit Rietveld Dutch, 1888 - 1964G. A. van de Groenekan, fabricator (Holland) Zig-Zag sidechair, 1939

Making the impossible, possible

Victory over

nature

Moder-nism and

Christ-ianity

La Sagrada Familia

Antoni Gaudí.

Started 1882

Completion 2026

144 years to build

The interior

The Nativity Facade

The Birth of Christ

Some NZ Humanist principles• Live a worthwhile life• Contribute to the well-

being of our fellow humans, since we depend on each other.

• Care for the health of the environment that nurtures us.

• Hurt not others with that which pains yourself.

• Do as you would be done by

• Children should be brought up to be honest, kind and fair.

The factory

for stars

Pablo Picasso, Le guitariste,

1910

reductionism

Pablo (or Pablito) Diego José Santiago Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Blasco y Picasso López

Naïve John

Good Old Modernism

Takes a Ciggy Break1992

HomeNew WorkEarly WorkDrawingsProductNewsLinksContact

Postmodernism (in complete defiance of the rules of science) flies away from exhausted

Modernism

PostmodernismMetaphysical and Epistemological assumptions

• multiple and individual realities

• the idea of “other”

• an absence of universals (meta-narratives)

• rejection of structural and hierarchical models – surface (lateral) not depth (vertical) relationships

• methodology of deconstruction

• research as a creative interactive qualitative process – focus groups, interviews, grounded theory

Karl Popper

Karl Popper’s “falsification” principle.

• Theories cannot be proven by doing endless confirmations of their predictions - the inductive argument

• One falsification of a theory is sufficient to disprove it - Newton and Einstein

• Science can never be more that a hypothesis waiting for falsification

• If an hypothesis is not falsifiable (testable) it is not scientific

We are the only beings conscious of our own existence. We cannot have an “innate” nature. We all have to create our own nature and meaning

Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone de Beauvior - Existentialism

Post-structuralism• An extension/rejection of structuralism – that the

meaning of things (words, behaviours) are subordinate to their place with a system.

• Objects exist independently of thought• However, all things only have meaning within

social space (relationships, discourse [thought and language]) – and are a social construction

• Meaning is constructed and can be deconstructed by discourse (themes) – terrorists vs freedom fighters

• Meaning is always in flux and where it is ambiguous is a pointer to shifting conditions of power

There is no one theory or perspective that defines everything

An ethical

and moral

vacuum?

Michel Foucault – power and ethics: “From being an art of unbearable sensations, punishment has

become an economy of suspended rights”

Foucault• Rejection of idea that there is position from which

you can observe all history – having a transcendent consciousness

• Understanding the location and movement of power is the key function of discourse analysis

• Everything is capable of multiple meanings – there are no experts

• The “confession” and the “examination” is seen as mechanisms of oppression in social services

• Maintaining a stance through ethics based on autonomy of the participant, reflexivity and critique

Jacques Derrida

Deconstruction - text analysis

1. Find tensions and instabilities in the text

2. Question assumptions which are set as self evident, natural or original

3. Look for the binaries (man-woman), developed-underdeveloped) – is there a power hierarchy? How stable is the binary? What does it exclude?

4. Look for paradox – where an author subverts his/her own intentions

Derrida - defining deconstruction.wmv

Post-positivism• critical realism. there is a reality independent

of our thinking about it • all observation is fallible and has error and

that all theory is revisable • the goal of science is to hold steadfastly to

the goal of getting it right about reality, even though we can never achieve that goal

• objectivity is a group perspective, requiring multiple measures and methods

• knowledge evolves through a process of variation, selection and retention

Contrasts between positivism and post-positivism[1]

Positivism Post-Positivism

Emphasis on parts and decontextualization

Emphasis on whole and contextualization

Emphasis on separationEmphasis on integration

Emphasis on the generalEmphasis on the specific

Consideration only of objective and the quantifiable

Consideration also of subjective and the non-quantifiable

Contrasts between positivism and post-positivism[1]

Positivism Post-Positivism

Reliance on experts and outsider knowledge--researcher as external

Consideration also of the "average" participant and insider knowledge- researcher as internal

Focus on prediction Focus on understanding

Top-down Bottom-up

Attempt to standardize Appreciation of diversity

Focus on the productFocus on the process as well

Transformative/Emancipatory paradigm

Has a focus on social justice, the experience of oppression, the differentials of power, and the cultural, political, economic and historical perceptions of “reality”. It builds on Foucauldian ideas of ethics and asks for a constant effort to move taken-for-granted knowledge to conscious examination while accepting the post-positivist agenda