Abstract
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e12230 |
| Pages | 1-10 |
| Journal | Nursing Philosophy |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 15 Nov 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 15 Nov 2018 |
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Keywords
- constructivism
- interpretivism
- positivism
- postpositivism
- realism
- research methodology
Cite this
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The Redundancy of Positivism as a Paradigm for Nursing Research. / Corry, Margarita; Porter, Sam; McKenna, Hugh P.
Vol. 20, No. 1, e12230, 15.11.2018, p. 1-10.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Redundancy of Positivism as a Paradigm for Nursing Research
AU - Corry, Margarita
AU - Porter, Sam
AU - McKenna, Hugh P.
PY - 2018/11/15
Y1 - 2018/11/15
N2 - New nursing researchers are faced with a smorgasbord of competing methodologies. Sometimes, they are encouraged to adopt the research paradigms beloved of their senior colleagues. This is a problem if those paradigms are no longer of contemporary methodological relevance. The aim of this paper was to provide clarity about current research paradigms. It seeks to interrogate the continuing viability of positivism as a guiding paradigm for nursing research. It does this by critically analysing the methodological literature. Five major paradigms are addressed: the positivist; the interpretivist/constructivist; the transformative; the realist; and the postpositivist. Acceptance of interpretivist, transformative or realist approaches necessarily entails wholesale rejection of positivism, while acceptance of postpositivism involves its partial rejection. Postpositivism has superseded positivism as the guiding paradigm of the scientific method. The incorporation in randomized controlled trials of postpositivist assumptions indicates that even on the methodological territory that it once claimed as its own, positivism has been rendered redundant as an appropriate paradigm for contemporary nursing research.
AB - New nursing researchers are faced with a smorgasbord of competing methodologies. Sometimes, they are encouraged to adopt the research paradigms beloved of their senior colleagues. This is a problem if those paradigms are no longer of contemporary methodological relevance. The aim of this paper was to provide clarity about current research paradigms. It seeks to interrogate the continuing viability of positivism as a guiding paradigm for nursing research. It does this by critically analysing the methodological literature. Five major paradigms are addressed: the positivist; the interpretivist/constructivist; the transformative; the realist; and the postpositivist. Acceptance of interpretivist, transformative or realist approaches necessarily entails wholesale rejection of positivism, while acceptance of postpositivism involves its partial rejection. Postpositivism has superseded positivism as the guiding paradigm of the scientific method. The incorporation in randomized controlled trials of postpositivist assumptions indicates that even on the methodological territory that it once claimed as its own, positivism has been rendered redundant as an appropriate paradigm for contemporary nursing research.
KW - constructivism
KW - interpretivism
KW - positivism
KW - postpositivism
KW - realism
KW - research methodology
U2 - 10.1111/nup.12230
DO - 10.1111/nup.12230
M3 - Article
VL - 20
SP - 1
EP - 10
IS - 1
M1 - e12230
ER -