Misconceived relationships between logical positivism and quantitative research (CRITIQUE)

INTRODUCTION: "Misconceived Relationship between logical positivism and quantitative research" has been written by Chong. Ho.Yu Ph.D and presented at the annual meeting of the 2001 American Education Research Association, Seattle,WA. The paper has discussed and examined various philosophical schools and quantitative procedures in order to prove that various misconceptions exist in understanding the relationship between quantitative research and logical positivism which has eight major notions. It has been argued that the underlying philosophy of modern quantitative research does not subscribe to logical positivism. The aim of the paper is to discuss the issue from three different perspectives. Firstly, it has been argued that the dichotomy between approaches is irrational and misguided which has created polarization among methodologies leading to epistemological incompatibility. Secondly, historical and theoretical evidence has been cited to prove that the philosophical links between quantitative methodology and logical positivism are not true. Thirdly, separation of quantitative research from logical positivism paves the way for reconceptualization of differences among methodologies which in turn encourages the researchers to keep an open mind to different methodologies and apply mixed methods to achieve the objectives of validity and completeness. Conclusion:

In the early 20th century, logical positivism was popular in both natural and social sciences and

thus experimental methods were developed under the influence of logical positivism. However,

cultures, including the academic culture, receive influences from multiple sources. In the

beginning, many philosophers of science have rejected logical positivism. Relating an outdated

philosophy to quantitative research may discourage social science researchers from using this

research approach, and also lead to misguided dispute between quantitative and qualitative

researchers (e.g., McLaughlin, 1991; Rennie, 1999). What is needed is to encourage researchers

to keep an open mind to different methodologies by allowing research methods being driven by

research questions (Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2004; Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005), while retaining

skepticism to examine their philosophical assumptions of various research methodologies instead

of unquestioningly accepting popular myths.