Hypothesis

Etic and Positivist Approach

Research under the positivist paradigm assumes a measurable objective reality about which a claim or prediction can be made and tested. This etic approach to research studies behavior from the outside, from a distance. It uses hypotheses (prior expectations of how something is supposed to be) in order to define and operationalize the variables and units under study, to build in measurable absolute criteria, and to make predictions about schemas and theories. Because the entire research process is built upon testing these a priori predictions, this approach to research relies on researcher control. This paradigm believes that reality is objective and thus can be represented, predicted, tested, measured, and controlled.

In this approach, a specific prediction is obtained from the hypothesis by deductive reasoning, and research measures the similarities or differences between observed or measured behavior and the predicted behavior (the hypothesis). Knowledge emerges from testing of the hypothesis and is significant as measured by this difference or sameness.

Emic and Interpretivist Approach

Research under the interpretivist or qualitative paradigm assumes the existence of multiple realities. In this type of research, the purpose is to describe, understand, or explain those multiple realities in their [Page 409]complex and ever-changing nature. This approach is an emic: behavior is studied from inside the system. This standpoint assumes multiple realities and views behavior relative to other behavior, devoid of prior expectations. The ethnographer who is a participant in the field has an emic standpoint, studying the system in depth, from inside, letting the data explain itself with few preconceived notions or predictions.

Because in this paradigm the entire research process assumes emergent findings, this approach to research relies on flexibility, reflexivity, and openness to discovery. Variables are defined and redefined during the analysis. They are discovered, not predicted. In the same vein, schemas, theories, and criteria are discovered as a result of the research, from the analysis, relative to the system and data studied. Knowledge is relative rather than absolute and is significant in its meaning relative to the discovery process.

This process is an inductive approach to decision making that focuses on discovery and constructed reality. Predictions, if made at all, are made as a result of the research findings as they generalize to similar cases or phenomena.