6. Strengths and limitations of pragmatism
In an 1985 paper Maxcy* argued that pragmatism provides the foundation for researchers to work ‘without the need to identifying invariant prior knowledge, laws or rules governing what is recognised as ‘true’ or ‘valid’
Pragmatic studies are inductive, moving from a complex problem to a general theory of understanding in order to improve a given situation.
Drag and drop the following statements to into either the pragmatic strengths or limitation boxes below:
Pragmatic investigations strengths are that they can:
- Be easily described and reported
- Be useful when unexpected results arise from a prior study
- Help to generalize data
- Be helpful in designing and validating an instrument
- Enable a researcher to develop a holistic analysis to fully incorporate numerous relevant factors into the study
Pragmatism also has its limitations. These can include:
- The time required to prepare and conduct the studies may be longer than for the more traditional paradigms
- There may be discrepancies between different types of data that are hard to interpret
- It can be difficult to decide how to order different types of data collection and when to proceed in sequential designs, that is to study different groups over a long period of time
- Be easily described
and reported - Its difficult to decide
how to order different types
of data collection and when to proceed
in sequential designs, that is to study
different groups over a long time period - Be useful when
unexpected results arise
from a prior study - Help to
generalize data - Be helpful in designing and
validating an instrument - Enable a researcher
to develop a holistic analysis
to fully incorporate numerous
relevant factors into the study - There may be discrepancies
between different types of data
that are hard to interpret - The time required to prepare
and conduct the studies
may be longer for the
more traditional paradigms