![]() ![]() Perhaps your assumptions come from your political perspective, which helps shape your view on a variety of social issues, or perhaps your assumptions are based on what you learned from your parents or in church. You are each operating under a set of assumptions about the way the world works, or the way you believe the world should work. Then again, the person who sits next to you in class may have a very different opinion and yet be equally confident about the truth of their perspective. Chances are, if you have an opinion about this topic, you are pretty certain about the veracity of your perspective. To others, abortion is murder and members of society should collectively have the right to decide when, if at all, abortion should be undertaken. To some, abortion is a medical procedure that should be undertaken at the discretion of each individual woman. For example, let’s look at people’s views on abortion. It can be difficult to fully grasp the idea of paradigmatic assumptions because we are very ingrained in our own, personal everyday way of thinking. Paradigms in social scienceįor our purposes, we’ll define paradigm as a way of viewing the world (or “analytic lens” akin to a set of glasses) and a framework from which to understand the human experience (Kuhn, 1962). Regarding them as analytically distinct will provide a useful framework for understanding the connections between research methods and social scientific ways of thinking. In this text, I will make a clear distinction between the two ideas. The terms paradigm and theory are often used interchangeably in social science, although social scientists do not always agree whether these are identical or distinct concepts. Describe the role that theory plays in social work research. ![]() Identify and describe the four predominant paradigms found in the social sciences. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |