Constructivism Research Philosophy

“Constructivism is the recognition that reality is a product of human intelligence interacting with experience in the real world. As soon as you include human mental activity in the process of knowing reality, you have accepted constructivism” Davis Elkind

Constructivism accepts reality as a construct of human mind, therefore reality is perceived to be subjective. Moreover, this philosophical approach is closely associated with pragmatism and relativism. In simple terms, according to constructivism, all knowledge is constructed from human experience. This viewpoint is based on inseparability between knowledge and knower.

Constructivism philosophy is based on cognitive psychology and its background relates to Socratic method, ancient Greece. Nevertheless, popularity of constructivism as a perspective in epistemology increased in recent years.

The main distinction between constructivism philosophy and positivism relates to the fact that while positivism argues that knowledge is generated in a scientific method, constructivism maintains that knowledge is constructed by scientists and it opposes the idea that there is a single methodology to generate knowledge.

There are various types of constructivism such as phenomenological constructivism, biological constructivism, cognitive constructivism and radical constructivism. However, in business dissertations you are not expected to discuss each of these types in great lengths.  The Table 1 below illustrates the major differences between constructivism, positivism and pragmatism philosophies:

Philosophy	Constructivism	Positivism	Pragmatism
Type of research	Qualitative	Quantitative	Mixed
Methods	Open-ended questions, emerging approaches, text and/or image data	Closed-ended questions, pre-determined approaches, numeric data	Both, open and closed-ended questions, both, emerging and predetermined approaches, and both, qualitative and quantitative data analysis
Research practices	Positions researcher within the context Collects participant-generate meanings Focuses on a single concept or phenomenon Brings personal values into the study Studies the context or setting of participants Validates the accuracy of findings Interprets the data Creates an agenda for change or reform Involves researcher in collaborating with participants	Tests or verifies theories or explanations Identifies variables of interest Relates variables in questions or hypotheses Uses standards of reliability and validity Observes and then measures information numerically Uses unbiased approaches Employs statistical procedures	Collects both, qualitative and quantitative data Develops a rationale for mixing methods Integrates the data at various stages of inquiry Presents visual pictures of the procedures in the study Employs practices of both qualitative and quantitative research

Table 1 Constructivism and other philosophical approaches[1]

 

The most popular types of constructivism paradigm are illustrated in the Table 2 below:

Type of constructivism	Explanation
Epistemological Constructivism	Knowledge is created by human perception and social experience
Social Constructivism (Social Constructionism)	Knowledge and reality are created by social relationships and interactions
Psychological Constructivism	People create systems to understand to understand their world and experiences

Table 2 Types of constructivism paradigm

 

If you choose to use constructivism philosophy in your dissertation, you will have to explain the relevance of your research to constructivism by referring to its definition. Also, you can specify the type of constructivism your research relates to and explain its implications to the research process.

My e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Dissertation in Business Studies: a step by step assistance contains discussions of theory and application of research philosophy. The e-book also explains all stages of the research process starting from the selection of the research area to writing personal reflection. Important elements of dissertations such as research philosophy, research approach, research design, methods of data collection and data analysis are explained in this e-book in simple words.

John Dudovskiy

 

[1] Andrew, P.S., Pedersen, P.M. & McEvoy, C.D. (2011) “Research Methods and Designs in Sport Management” Human Kinetics