Paradigmatic Incommensurability In Research

Explain the problem of “paradigmatic incommensurability” in the philosophy of science and demonstrate, using at least 3 examples, how to attain commensurability in a scientific research project.

INTRODUCTION

Learning about research within a social science context is treated with more rigor that than of commercial research since there is the foundation lies on a philosophical role. The two main paradigms that used namely that of positivism and interpretivism (seen in some readings as constructivism) outline the two perspectives that researchers use as models to guide the interpretation of research projects. This essay treats with the issue of paradigmatic commensurability which outlines the use of the paradigm approach to research and guides

The two main paradigms that are used for describing these are using the objective, scientific-based positivist approach and the subjective, phenomological-based interpretivist approach. Since the positivist approach is grounded on a foundation of empirical testing, it looks largely at hypotheses and determines cause and effect relationships based on largely deductive logic as well as the validity and reliability of the research studies conducted. The interpretivist paradigm uses multiple perspectives of reality since this is based on a contextual interpretation of the issues being examined, where reality is a fluid construct and depends on who is being observed under a particular set of

Methods for data collection – either qualitative or quantitative are chosen based on the type of data that needs to be collected. Following on from the idea that an overall project could be composed of various sub-projects means that methods could be mixed in using the both qualitative and quantitative while remaining true to the overall objective and philosophical approach. For example, a research study examining the effect of performance appraisals on career progression in the IT industry could follow the overall positivist paradigm to investigate the impact on completing the performance appraisal process successfully on career advancement by beginning with a focus group study which is a qualitative approach to determine which elements of the performance appraisal process was perceived as the most relevant, followed up by a survey (quantitative study) to analyse the correlation of the highest ranked factors with career progress. In this example, the methods are mixed but the overall objectives remains