A Grounded Theory Primer for Audiology

The publisher would like to make note of the permission used for Table 1 in the above article in Seminars in Hearing, Volume 33, Number 2, 2012. p. 138. The permission notation is indicated on the following page.

Table 1 Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives and Their Implications for Research⁴³

Worldview Element	Postpositivism	Constructivism	Critical	Pragmatism
Ontology—nature of reality	One reality that we can strive to measure	Multiple perspectives, individual realities, that we can strive to represent	Political and social reality Reality may be objective but truth is contestable	Singular and multiple realities, depending on topic
Epistemology—the theory of knowledge embedded in the theoretical perspective and thereby the methodology (Crotty,42 p. 3), the relationship between the researcher and that being researched (Plano Clark,43 p. 24)	Knowledge can be objectively found, from the data, through impartial methods	Researchers and participants are an active part of the creation of knowledge	Knowledge created collaboratively involving participants; knowledge affected by power relations and in need of continued revision, reconsideration, questioning	Collect data depending on “what works” to address a particular research question
Axiology—role of values	Unbiased	Biased	Biased Negotiated	Multiple stances
Methodology—the strategy, plan of action, process, or design behind the choice and use of particular methods, which link the choice and use of methods to the desired outcomes (Crotty,42 p. 3)	Deductive, predictive, controlled, explanatory (e.g., experimental design; survey research)	Inductive, understanding, meaningful, naturalistic, descriptive (e.g., grounded theory, ethnography, narrative)	Participatory, emancipatory, gives voice to the voiceless (e.g., participatory action research)	Combining, addresses the question through appropriate means (e.g., mixed methods)
Language—how the research is presented at academic meetings and in scholarly journals	Formal	Informal—literary, analogical	In terms of advocacy and change, social, political	Formal or informal
Methods—the techniques used to gather and analyze data	Questionnaires, statistical analyses	Interviews, focus groups, naturalistic observation, writing, document review	Case studies, focus groups, participant observation, photovoice	Both quantitative and qualitative methods

Adapted with permission from Creswell and Plano Clark. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research, 2nd edition; 2010.