Critical thinking on research methodologies and methods used in the Essay

Critical thinking on research methodologies and methods used in the paper - Essay Example 3). The methodology that is chosen is based on our assumptions, interest and purposes (Taylor and Bogdan 1998). The methodology chosen is dependent on the theoretical perspective which the researcher seeks to follow. Taylor and Bogdan (1998) indicate that there are two major theoretical perspectives which have dominated social science – positivism and phenomenological or interpretive. Positivist seeks to obtain facts or to determine the causes of social phenomena which are outside of the subjective states of individuals. The interpretive approach seeks to understand social phenomena from the actor’s point of view – that is what individuals perceive the reality to be. Methodology represents the main ways in which researchers act on the environment in which they are interested – the methods (experiments, surveys, etc.) they use to gain information lead to ‘different characteristics of their reality; and it is through the methods they utilise that make their research public and reproducible by others. In addition to theoretical principles a methodology provides a framework which forms a guide to the way in which research is carried out. ... 3) advances three methodologies – Qualitative, quantitative and a mixed approach which incorporates elements of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The qualitative and quantitative approaches are differentiated by their basic philosophical assumptions that researchers bring to the study, the strategies they employ in their research – quantitative experiments or qualitative case studies, and the particular methods they employ in carrying out these strategies – collecting quantitative data versus collecting qualitative data by observing a situation or through participation. Denzin and Lincoln (2005, p. 3) qualitative research is a ‘situated activity that locates the observer in the world.’ It is a set of interpretive practices that makes the world visible to the researcher. Researchers make use of conversations, field notes, interviews, photographs, recordings, and memos which act as reminders. Qualitative research then becomes ‘an i nterpretive, naturalistic approach to the world.’ This implies that qualitative researchers’ take advantage of natural setting in their attempts to interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings constructed by the people involved in the situation that is being studied. Methods for collecting data such as interviews are capable of being used under different methodological presuppositions. This is also true for sampling methods. What's the relation between this to the journal content? In their paper, Owens et al (2005) uses the word method to indicate the methodology that they used in their research. In that they indicate the method they used to choose the participants for the study, the procedures they followed to collect data and how the data was analysed. In the section relating to the analysis of data the

Austerity Measures Summary Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Austerity Measures Summary - Assignment Example At first the author perceived that she can easily cope up with such a diet. The author stated that living on the food items provided and cooking them was very difficult for her as she had stopped cooking food on her own. She states that the food she was consuming never satisfied her or the other participants and only fulfilled the need of having food. Two days later the challenge required the participants to eat at St. Anthony’s where they were provided with food comprising of heavy quantity of calories. The author states that she was quite happy having that food. The author states that an official of the Hunger Challenge told her that poverty was a major issue in San Francisco and people were actually facing poverty due to expensive cost of living. The author states that the entire experience made her realized how difficult it was to live in poverty. She concludes that organizations that are out there to help the poor are very essential and they need to be heavily supported b y the common