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Advise on Kuhn's Paradigm Shifts

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What is paradigm shift and what does it imply in doing research?

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Solution Summary

This solution (which comes in the form of an advice) offers a basic understanding of Thomas Kuhn's idea of 'paradigm shifts' and its implication on conducting a research study.

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Dear Student,
Hi. As I see it, you are asking for an explanation of Thomas Kuhn's theory on 'paradigm shifts' and how this affects or what it implies in research. Since this is not an essay-question but an inquiry, I will give you an explanation.

Kuhn was a philosopher of science and in 1962 he published his ground breaking book ' The Theory of scientific revolutions'. What is revolutionary about it is that before him, an explanation as to how knowledge is established and how it falls apart has not been explained. As a philosopher of science, his work has implications across the scientific fields from natural to the social sciences and of course, in psychology.

What is central in science is that to investigate a phenomenon or to find an explanation for the world, scientists utilise the scientific method: hypothesis, research design, operationalisation of concepts, fieldwork & data gathering, data tests and analysis, conclusions are raised, a theory is either born with the proven hypothesis or the hypothesis is disproved. What is important about this is the fact that the entire process can be redone over and over again and critics can follow the same steps to validate the research. This uses reason and logic to establish knowledge.

The thing about science however is that a theory cannot be truly universal - it cannot ...

Solution provided by:
Xenia Rochelle Jones, MA, PhD (IP)
Education
  • MPhil/PhD (IP), Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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