Methodological Choices
Crotty (1998) states that the choice of theoretical research paradigm signifies the researchers thoughts, values and way of approaching the world and the sort of knowledge the researcher will attain. The overarching paradigm selected for this research is constructivism (fig. 1). According to Lincoln and Guba (1985) and
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Sarantakos (2005), constructivism emerged as a paradigm of epistemological thought in resistance to traditional positivist thought. The constructivist stance rejects the idea of absolute truth and believes in multiple constructed realities and the meanings that people ascribe to the world around them. It holds that the world cannot be known through the senses but rather must be built up through snapshots and stories of individual’s subjective accounts. The researcher’s relationship to the world being studied is interactive and inseparable. Naturalistic inquiry fits within this paradigm, and is suited for this research because as Silverman (2006) and Lincoln and Guba (1985) describe, naturalism appreciates the close proximity of the researcher to the object and culture researched and values data gathered through observing the world in natural settings rather than obtaining contrived data through controlled experiments as in traditional positivist research. Whereas the positivist seeks an objective, distant relationship towards the research subject I sought to establish a close, relationship with my research subject, the iPad® in order to test its therapeutic capacity. The positivist framework produces numerical, quantitative data or propositional knowledge whereas naturalistic inquiry produces rich qualitative data, or tacit knowledge, ie. subjective knowledge gained through life experience (Lincoln & Guba 1985).
The Constructivist Paradigm embraces many theoretical perspectives.