Transcript of What is the relationship among Ontology, Epistemology, Methodology and Method

hello everyone welcome back to your research method journey this is uju and today we are going to talk about research philosophies okay and by the time you are watching this video i'm sure you have already learned a lot about methods and methodologies you you already know about various methodologies and that you can use to conduct the research well less philosophy or research philosophy to be specific it is a the grounding theory which underpins the methodology that you you'd use or you you want to use for any research that you want to conduct so it is the a bit of hidden element underpins the methodology or the method the most obvious and elements that you would see when you are doing a research for example and let's see you want to use a um a survey to conduct your research well that survey is the method that you are going to choose and survey itself is the element that actually shows and to people well as why choosing the survey what's the theory behind and that's the thing that you are going to learn from today's lecture which is on research philosophy so it is the funding theory it is the guiding framework which underpins the method that you would choose okay so i would give you more sense of it by the time that we and talk more more about the philosophy in today's lecture we are going to talk about some key concept around philosophy and that would include ontology epistemology methodology and we would also compare them with method that you're probably most familiar with and then in the second part of the lecture and we will talk about some popular and or famous the most the the some of the most famous philosophies used in research which are positivism and interpretivism and we'll also introduce another one called critical realism these three are the most common ones used by students in the past years in your dissertation and finally and i'd like to invite you to participate in two exercises that i have designed to help you and test how much you understand the terms that you've learned today okay let's go to the first part which probably would is the most difficult part and not only for today's lecture but also for the whole research method module and it is believed to be the most difficult part which is on those and terms and i'm not sure how many of you have studied these terms before and but anyway i'll try to explain those terms in a simple and more understandable way and i'll give you a couple of examples hopefully that they will help help and your understanding about these difficult terms okay and this shows this graph here shows a relationship and among these four terms okay and so the the most important and the fundamental concept here is called ontology ontology is about what the what what the world is and the study of reality what reality is what the thing is okay i'll just briefly introduce them here and later i will talk in details on each of these terms so we have the ontology which is about what what the world is and epistemology is on how we know what we know it sounds a bit complicated isn't it and the methodology is about the way that we try to know something the overarching strategy that we can use to understand something and the methods is usually the most obvious element which is the actual technique that we use and to conduct research don't worry if you don't understand them now we will we will gradually unfold those and terms in today's lecture okay and so here is is also a graph and talking about showing that the relationships among the four terms similarly to and the previous slide which is kind of a more linear relationship and so i i put two graphs here to show actually the same thing and the reason i put two types of kind of relations or graphs here is because i think and different students may have a different preference on how you learn some may learn better in a linear way some may learn better in a kind of this more kind of visual and graph or you know close to reality way so here this graph is a tree um it's a tree trunk okay so here if if you're more kind of a visual learner you may find this graph and more understandable and we know that in a tree trunk they have layers and layers and layers and from outsiders viewpoint the thing that we could observe from a tree trunk if we if we don't cut if we don't cut the tree it's only the back the the very outside and the ring very outside layer isn't it we can only see the the back well as the inside unless we cut the tree we we do not see them but these the the the thing inside and actually are more important here and so here as you can see from this graph the very core in the middle is the ontology it is the study of reality or the study of the world what the thing actually is and we have a second layer their second ring and epistemology is the way or the theory of knowledge it is about the way how we know what the reality is what ontology is so these two concepts the ontology and epistemology these two concepts are usually very very close to each other if you read a book on any philosophy research philosophy you would probably encounter with these two terms ontology and epistemology and each philosophy would have their own ontological assumption and epistemology consumption anyway and we will talk about them later and the third reign and we move outwards is the methodology so the methodology is the overarching strategy that we would use to know to know about the and what the thing is or to know about what the reality is what the knowledge is so the methodology is kind of towards to the more you know and obvious or noticeable and wrens their methodology and finally the method the bach part the the the very outside ring of the tree tree trunk the method is the actual math method or technique we would say that you would use and to conduct research so things like surveys questionnaires interviews these are the actual technique these are the method so the very outside layer okay i hope they started to make some sense to you about the relationship of of these four concepts very important concepts okay right and now i'm going to talk about these concepts one by one well as before i start to talk about these terms in much more detailed and fashion and now i want you to look at this image here and on this slide thinking about what it is okay thinking about the question what it is in this image and you can now pause the video and think about this question what it is in this image okay right i think you you should have an answer in your mind although i couldn't hear and since this video is pre-recorded and well from my previous internet the interactions that i had with my students in the previous years when i asked them this question they came out and answers very kind of diverse answers from different perspectives and the the most popular answer from my students was a pyramid or not a pyramid but we have a couple of pyramids right in the middle of this image we can see a desert we can see a camel a human being and a couple of pyramids so these pyramids that could be one reality okay so what we are studying here it could be we are studying the pyramid alternatively it could be that we are studying the stones so it doesn't have to be a pyramid or the shape of a pyramid it could be you know we are studying the stones or it could be way these these are no longer about some natural science stuff it could be we are studying a religious symbol isn't it or a cultural symbol because pyramid shape could be some and religious symbols or cultural symbol in some in some culture so here this one image we could actually get multiple realities that we want to study okay so here i just want to use this image as an example to show you there there could be different ontologies so each reality could be a way of interpreting interpreting the ontology the ontology sorry okay ontology is this is about the reality what what the world is what the reality is so here from that image that we've just looked at one reality could be pyramid when reality could be stones or when reality could be religious symbols those are different realities those could be different ontologies so depending on and what your ontological perception is or assumption is or your position is you could give different answers okay so that is an example of what ontology could be okay the reality what thing that you are studying okay and there are two common ontologies and in the research philosophy field one is called objectivism as you can see from the slide the other one is called subjectivism well there are others but these two are the most commonly used ontology or ontological approach or ontological assumption whatever you call it these two are the two extremes actually and one is objectivism one is subjectivism from the the word itself you prove i think you'd probably and already can guess what they represent for so objectivism is about an object objective reality so people who believe in objectivism would believe that the reality is objective so no matter who is no matter who is studying the same thing they should observe the same objective reality okay so the researcher itself like no matter it is me or it is you that should not make a difference on what we know about the reality okay so it is objective or it is scientific it doesn't influence by the researcher or it doesn't influence by what language you use to study the object okay and the other way around the other extreme is subjectivism so subjectivism is the total opposite of objectivism subjectivism is you know there is no such thing called a single reality so there are multiple realities all the all the realities are influenced by concept influenced by context so the reality does not exist unless they are built on a certain context for example built on a geographical context built on economical context of building a cultural context etc so everything has a distortion through the lens of a culture our power etc so there there so they you can tell that these two are quite extremely different objectivism being quite objective and subject to tbisome being quite subjective isn't it so these two are the two common and ontologies and in the research field and you can think about whichever one is more um about you yourself so which one you you are more kind of a type of person or you believe you believe more at okay and so in my class i'd like to use a lot of visuals because myself is also a visual learner so i i using visuals for me benefit my learning so i i think it could be good and to bring the mark for other visual learners okay and so here this image again i'll give you um several seconds to look at this image and think what have you found here and what it is in this image okay that's about five seconds probably you you already have an announcer and this image and can you see a rabbit head and can you see a dark hat if you can't see other of them and you can probably spend some more time looking at this image so this is another example of showing you multiple realities and the the reason why i like these multiple realities is myself is is if you referring back to these two extremes myself is more of a subjectivism person so i believe in multiple realities i believe it's and you know it is not only one reality and and i think it depends on the the way how we interpret a thing a certain thing okay another image here and give yourself another five seconds to look at this image on what can you find from this image okay uh that's about five seconds if you want more time you can pause the video and and and keep looking at this image here and can you see a young lady this young lady's face is is um it's facing the left-hand side and in in about that way only showing kind of a side of of her head that's a young lady and can you see an old lady an old lady and who is in about this angle having um out this is okay a laser point okay so this old lady these are her two eyes and you can see her her mouth her lip her lips is here and that's her job okay right okay so if if you are interested in this image you can after the class you can and keep look you know searching for some similar graphs for your own interest right so we have talked about ontology which is study of reality what reality is or what the thing is what the world is which is the kind of the ultimate question there and an epistemology is the study of knowledge or it's a study of how do we know what we know so for example on ontology for example on the image that we the first image that i have shown you on the pyramid so if you think the ontology the reality is that that image and is to study pyramid so under that ontology the reality epistemology is how do we know what we know so how do we know that they are pyramid not all triangles are pyramid isn't it so how do we know that they are pyramids is an example of an epistemology okay so how do we know what we know how can we know what we know and similarly um as we just mentioned about the two extremes of ontology epistemology also have two extremes and one of the extreme epistemology is positivism or objectivism and the other one is interpretivism or subjectivism and so they have different and name of the terms but they mean very very similar so positivism or objectivism when they refer as a epistemology they mean that it is possible to observe the world so how how how you know how do we know what th what the world is it is possible to observe the world okay so we can observe the world to know what what the world is so we can observe the world to know and this ontology of what the world is no matter who observed the world or who observe the reality and we always observe it in a neutral way so the no matter who we do not distort the answer of what the world is or what the reality is so that's the an assumption the epistemological assumption for objectivism okay so the value of the researcher does not influence the outcome of the observation and we can observe the the reality okay that's about objectivism or positive positivism and as in epistemology and the other extreme on and subjectivism or interpretivism as an epistemology and this epistemological approach and it is that the world is always changing it is very hard to observe okay it is always changing and how we know you know epistemology is about how we know what we know right so how we know that it is a pyramid how we know about the reality is depending on how we interpret the reality okay so it is not that it is only just one answer or one single reality well as here subjectivism or interpretivism believes that it is depend on how we interpret unreality many things can influence the interpretation it could be our cultural understanding or cultural background and or any other background that we have could influence the way how we interpret unreality okay and so for example and one behavior in one religion may be regarded as good or the same behavior in another religion may be regarded as bad and so here if if you are a interpretivist or subjectivist you may believe that and all the interpretation all the reality are you know can be distorted by the interpretation of the researcher or of their cultural background or of their religious background or their their power and condition okay right so these two i hope they um make some sense to you and i know these two concepts the ontology and epistemology are very difficult to understand if you if you don't know them and hopefully you you get some sense and also after the lecture i would recommend you to read at least one of the books on the reading list and try to read more about the the concepts and try to understand them and in the books you may find more examples more case studies which would help you to understand these terms but for now i hope you have already you know started to build some some knowledge and some sense of what they are okay right here uh here's another image that i like here and there is this image we can see three heads isn't it the three hats and or three bold hats and in this image well let's what the reality is we could see we could say that you know these are hats human heads bold heads and but the the actual kind of meaning that each hat want to show could be different for example the first hat could represent a style a hair style fashion style well the second image could represent a image of a soldier and a third it had could represent image of a survivor for example a survivor from a certain cancer to again and i want to use this to show you that it could be different um it could be one reality just had but we could have different interpretations isn't it so that if you believe that similar like me you are more of a interpretat interpretivist okay again here interpretive is interpretivist or subjectivist like me so i believe in multiple interpretations on the same reality or you could be a positivist an or objectivist so i and i want to show you this example to help you and help you understand these terms as well as help you identify what or which philosophical sense that you you know you're you're naturally are what you are more love you are more of a you know the subjective subjectivism side of a person or a more love objectivist okay and the third concept methodology i assume you already know or most of you already know or heard of this term methodology methodology and is the overarching strategy okay and and it is influenced by the methodology sorry influenced by the philosophy that you choose for methodology and the two popular of a commonly used methodology are quantitative methodology and qualitative methodology okay i think you may have already heard of these two terms quantitative methodology and the quality of methodology right so again think about what kind of which which side you are more and naturally is or you're more kind of fond of um here i'd like you to think about the question that i put on the slide and you can see in the slide in the middle there and bolded which says what is the difference between methodology and method it could be quite obvious or you have never thought about it so today is the chance that you think about this question i'm going to give you 10 seconds i have a countdown timer here to think about this question what the difference between methodology and method is c okay that's 10 seconds and and if you feel like you you need more time please pause the video and and come back after you have finished your own thoughts all right the difference between methodology and method these are the two terms that every year many students mix them up they are not difficult to understand but many students tend to mix them up and it's okay if you i mean in other modules if you say methodology when you mean method or if you say method when you mean methodology and other people can also understand but here since we are in the very um designated module on research methodology and i'd like you to learn the kind of most accurate knowledge that you can on those terms so we are we are actually being being maybe a little bit too much but i hope you are you know you can you can know these difference between um these commonly used terms well methodology and compare with method it is a little bit more abstract than the method the abstract and the method is is is more kind of a practical side of it the methodology is overwriting strategy as we said earlier the the the most too commonly used methodology are quantitative methodology and and qualitative methodology from the term itself the quantitative and qualitative it sounds more abstract than the term that we use for method isn't it the method refers to the techniques that we use the actual techniques that we use and to conduct research the actual techniques commonly use the ones are interviews questionnaires or experiments and so these methods are what most you know outsiders would would easily can easily observe what you're doing there like when you are doing a dissertation they could tell that okay you you've you've done some um interviews so those interviews are the techniques are the most kind of observable elements there well as the interview the the kind of overreaching strategy behind the interview is the qualitative methodology okay the qualitative methodology is the strategy behind the interview method and it guides the interview method similarly and behind the qualitative methodology we also have the it's ontology and and epistemology behind the methodology as you can remember those that tree trunk isn't it so the very very outside layer observer easy to be observable layer and which is the method like the interviews so people would notice that you have conducted some interviews for your research but they probably do not notice is you know why you're using interviews why interview method would be able to answer your research question would help you to find an answer for your research question okay so these things in the core are actually guiding the method that you're using so yeah put that tree trunk image in in your mind okay so and i just want to reinforce that image to you the interview method that you use is guided by the methodology the qualitative methodology and is guided by quite possibly and in the interpretivism epistemology and subjectivism and anthology okay the four layers they are all related to each other all right and if you want to do more and you're welcome to check those textbooks and for example that tree tree trunk is from the um abby's sorry i couldn't pronounce the name yeah easter bay smith that um book i put the reference down at the bottom of the slide so you can have a read of this book and get to know more about um this tree trunk and this one good thing about this book is um it is not only the book that you can study from and they also have a designated online resources a bank of online resources so if you google it or use any other your very favorite search engine and and put the name of the author and name of the book in your search engine and you should be able to find its online resources so they have provided some videos some case studies some exercises for you to check how much you've learned about these terms okay all right here um before we move to the second part here i'd like to show you two examples of and the two methodology the data from two methodology so this is an example of the qualitative methodology data and this is an example of data from quantitative methodology okay and i'd like you to think about this question what is the difference between the qualitative data and the quantitative data okay come back again to look at them again or you can look at your own slides and which you can download from minerva the quality of data example and quantitative data example so look at these two and examples and think about what is the difference between these two types of data again i'm going to give you 10 seconds to think about this question okay that's 10 seconds and if you feel like you need more time please pause the video and and come back when you're ready okay let's look at these two examples together um the most obvious difference between the two is that the quantitative data is about numbers isn't it the digits numbers as you can see from this image in the middle they all numbers are the ones twos or three four five etc so these are all numbers well as here and no matter they're highlighted or not they're all text isn't it they're all text or words words sentences or paragraphs they are text so that's the most obvious difference between a qualitative data and quantitative data the quant quantitative data is to study the numbers well as a quality of data is to study the text and but that's quite kind of at surface level the difference between the two and so for example this one here the quality of data we know it is quality of data but it doesn't necessarily mean that we need to use a qualitative methodology to analyze this quality of data so we could analyze it as a as the way a qualitative researcher would do by coding these and text and trying to find some common common message among the different and different paragraphs that's the way of like analyzing it in a qualitative way well as we could also analyzing this text data in a quantitative fashion which we could count for example we can count frequencies of a certain word for example i want to count the frequency of the word weak so there and i could see a week or a day some days friday saturday monday etc so i could count the frequencies and if you're doing that you are not actually analyzing this data in a qualitative way but in a quantitative way because you are again you are doing something about numbers isn't it if you are counting the result would be a number so it could be like 10 50 or even 100 so those are numbers or if you are counting the percentage of a certain word that again that's that's numbers so that's that's a little bit a little bit too far away uh from and i mean this is a little bit more depth about quality of data and quantitative data but anyway these uh i want to show you the difference between these two data from the two methodology quality methodology and quantitative methodology okay and so that's it of the first part hopefully and like you are started you have started to build up your understanding towards these key concepts under the research philosophy which are ontology epistemology methodology okay so these three are usually other key concepts and about a research philosophy and in the second part of the lecture and we will talk about some of the most famous philosophies i will see you in next part