Different From Peile ( 1988 ) And Reid - 1245 Words

Different from Peile (1988) and Reid (1994), Haworth (1991) proposed that social work research should move to a more relativistic, interactive, consciousness based paradigm. Although he called this paradigm as â€Å"the New Paradigm†, it is very similar to the constructivism paradigm. He provided some evidence of several negative connotations that are attributed to the positivist paradigm, such as operationalism, reductionism. For example, the quantitative inquiry can only manipulate or control for limited variables and not all concepts can be operationalized. Second, positivism paradigm is a very â€Å"damaging hoax† because it is wrong about claiming its objectivity (Haworth, 1991). That is, separating human from their experiences. In fact, the†¦show more content†¦Through this research methods, the researchers can develop social work knowledge with details and in-depth. Second, I do not agree with Haworth (1991) that we can use constructivism paradigm to rep lace positivism paradigm. Admittedly, Haworth (1991) provided some sound argument that quantitative research has flaws. For example, quantitative researchers hold the views of reductionism and operationism and heavily rely on measurement and statistical analysis, which may provide false knowledge to social work practice. It is true that majority social science researchers have been treating quantitative research is superior (Peile, 1988). However, we would go from one extreme to another extreme if we think qualitative research is the new paradigm that should replace the quantitative research. Moreover, the qualitative research has limitations too. Qualitative studies have generalizability concerns. Although their findings may be transferable to another setting, sample size usually are collected from a few cases or individuals so findings cannot be generalized to a larger population. Also, if a researcher pursues large sample size, the whole research process would be extremely time-c onsuming. Both the critical paradigm and the creative research paradigm that Peile (1988) proposed share some similar ideas with the new paradigm research approach that wass proposed by Peile (1988), and Reid’s