To ensure a strong research design,

To ensure a strong research design, researchers must choose a research paradigm that is congruent with their beliefs about the nature of reality. Consciously subjecting such beliefs to an ontological interroga- tion in the first instance will illuminate the epistemological and methodological possibilities that are available.
We do not quickly or easily reach any sort of conclusion or resolution about our own view of the na- ture of truth and reality. We are all influenced by our history and cultural context, which, in turn, shape our view of the world, the forces of creation, and the meaning of truth. Often these underlying assump- tions about the world are unconscious and taken for granted. Constructivism is a research paradigm that denies the existence of an objective reality, “asserting instead that realities are social constructions of the mind, and that there exist as many such constructions as there are individuals (although clearly many constructions will be shared)” (Guba & Lincoln, 1989, p. 43).
Individuals who deny the existence of an objective reality assume a relativist ontological position (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). Relativists claim that concepts such as rationality, truth, reality, right, good, or norms must be understood “as relative to a specific conceptual scheme, theoretical framework, para- digm, form of life, society, or culture . . . there is a non-reducible plurality of such conceptual schemes” (Bernstein, 1983, p.