RSCH-FPX7860 surveys quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research broadly, giving students the foundational vocabulary and comparative understanding needed before specializing into deeper quantitative or qualitative methods coursework.
Surveying the major research paradigms
RSCH-FPX7860 covers the philosophical and methodological foundations distinguishing quantitative research (testing hypotheses through numerical measurement), qualitative research (exploring meaning and lived experience), and mixed-methods research (combining both) as genuinely different approaches to generating knowledge.
Matching research paradigm to research question
The course teaches students to evaluate a given research question and determine which methodological paradigm is best suited to answering it, recognizing that a poorly matched paradigm-question pairing undermines a study's validity regardless of how carefully it's executed.
Key topics in RSCH-FPX7860
- Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research paradigms
- Philosophical foundations underlying different research approaches
- Matching research paradigm to research question type
- Overview of common designs within each paradigm
- Evaluating published research for paradigm-question fit
- Preparing for specialized quantitative or qualitative methods coursework
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Worked example: matching a research question to the right paradigm
- Question A: "Does a specific intervention reduce anxiety scores more than standard treatment?" — quantitative, testing a measurable, comparative hypothesis
- Question B: "How do first-generation doctoral students experience imposter phenomenon?" — qualitative, exploring lived experience and meaning
- Question C: "What factors predict program completion, and how do students experience those factors?" — potentially mixed-methods, combining predictive measurement with experiential depth
- Lesson: The nature of the question itself points toward the appropriate paradigm — choosing based on personal preference rather than genuine question fit undermines the study
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Frequently asked questions
A research paradigm's underlying assumptions about what counts as valid knowledge and how it can be known directly determine whether a given method can actually answer the specific question being asked — a quantitative approach can measure whether an intervention produces a statistically significant difference in a measurable outcome, but it cannot capture the rich, meaning-focused understanding a qualitative approach provides about how people experience a phenomenon. RSCH-FPX7860 teaches that selecting a paradigm based on personal preference or comfort, rather than genuine fit to the research question, risks producing a methodologically flawed study regardless of how carefully it's executed — a well-designed quantitative study answering a fundamentally qualitative question (or vice versa) simply cannot deliver a valid answer to what's actually being asked, no matter how rigorously the mismatched method is applied.
Even a researcher who ultimately specializes primarily in quantitative or qualitative methods benefits from genuinely understanding the full landscape of research paradigms, both to accurately evaluate and critique research conducted using other approaches (which they'll inevitably encounter throughout their academic reading) and to recognize situations where their own preferred method might not actually be the best fit for a given research question they encounter later. RSCH-FPX7860 teaches this broad survey specifically because doctoral-level scholars need to be genuinely literate across the full methodological landscape — being able to critically evaluate any research paper's methodological choices, not just papers using their own preferred approach, is an essential scholarly literacy skill this foundational survey course is designed to build before students move into more specialized methods coursework.