[The relationship between qualitative research and positivism].
Historically, positivism has been the dominant approach in the philosophy of science. In nursing, most quantitative researchers tend to employ positivism as their epistemological underpinning, which could be why positivism has long been identified as the epistemology of quantitative research. It can be argued, however, that some of the procedures of qualitative research reflect the perspectives on which positivists insist. This article takes grounded theory and phenomenology as examples, in order to observe how positivism influences their methodologies, evidence obtained is then used to support the aruthors' arguments. The article, furthermore encourages beginning researchers to familiarize themselves with background knowledge of philosophy of social sciences, especially epistemologies and methodologies, in order to make clear the philosophical context in which their research is conducted.
School of Nursing, University of Nottingham, UK.
Cheng-I
CI
Yang
Li-Hung
LH
Lee
Wen-Chii
WC
Tzeng
D015399:Nursing Research; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing; D036301:Qualitative Research