Can somebody shed some clarity on how a contextual approach to qualitative research translates into a specific paradigm, epistemology, ontology and axiology in psychology?
I understand that it is a philosophical approach but there seem to be different views about which paradigm etc. it would be part of. Thanks.
Maybe it's less clear since people use "contextual" and "qualitative" differently, even just within Psychology. "Qualitative" describes a measure where we calculate inter-rater reliability with a coding scheme providing us numbers for statistical analysis (empiricism, traditional scientific approach). "Qualitative" is also used for an inductive process of triangulation for qualitative analysis. It's similar to ethnography and grounded theory and they share post-modern worldviews. In Developmental Psychology we have many approaches saying social context matters. We have rigorous traditional scientific work in Comparative Psychology by people like Michael Tomasello (traditional scientific epistemology), to middle grounds like Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory, to Barbara Rogoff's cultural account (more like post-modernism and anti-reductionism). Hope this helps, Heidi! - Maddie
Hi,
I can suggest you look at critical realism, which is a paradigm mostly based on contextual conditions. I am not sure whether it is used - or available - in the field of psychology, but it is worth examining in terms of providing an original contribution to the work!
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