Table 1.

Most common qualitative-based research philosophies: assumptions and stances and the likelihood of embracing the quantitizing process.

Research philosophy	Ontology	Epistemology	Axiology	Methodology	Likelihood of quantitizing	Rationale
Social constructionism (Berger and Luckmann, 1967; Leeds-Hurwitz, 2009; Lock, 2010; Schwandt, 2000)	Reality is socially constructed.	Knowledge is created within social contexts.	Values are openly acknowledged and scrutinized.	Common approaches include discourse analysis, ethnographic studies, and narrative research.	Generally skeptical	Perceived as reducing the richness of social phenomena.
Social constructivism (Palinscar, 1998; Rust et al., 2005; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978)	Reality is constructed through human mental activity and social interactions.	Knowledge is constructed individually but mediated socially.	Values the subjective experience and perspective of the researcher and participants.	Prefers qualitative approaches such as interviews and case studies.	Usually limited	Prioritizing individual meaning-making which is difficult to quantify. Focusing on depth over breadth in data.
Radical constructivism (Glasersfeld, 1995; Steffe and Thompson, 2000)	Knowledge and reality are personally constructed, not discoverable; rejecting an objective reality.	Understanding is subjective, shaped by experiences.	Highly reflexive about the influences of the researcher's biases; Highly individualized perspective on values.	Emphasizes qualitative approaches that explore individual experiences; Introspective and reflective qualitative methods.	Rarely embraced	It contradicts the emphasis on individual subjective experiences.
Critical theory (Habermas, 1984; Tyson, 2023)	Social reality is shaped by power, economics, and social forces.	Knowledge is a social product, influenced by material conditions and power dynamics. Knowledge is a tool for emancipation and critique.	Committed to emancipation and challenging status quo, as well as to social justice and change.	Qualitative approaches aimed at uncovering power structures and exploring individual experiences.	Open to quantitizing	If it serves critical insights and emancipatory goals.
Feminist standpoint theory (Cabrera et al., 2020)	Reality is seen through the lens of women's experiences.	Knowledge is situated; marginalized perspectives offer a more complete view of reality. Knowledge is derived from the lived experiences of marginalized groups.	Values the experiences and voices of the marginalized. Advocacy and empowerment are central.	Qualitative, focusing on the experiences of women and other marginalized groups; often narrative and ethnographic.	Limited use	If it supports advocacy goals.
Feminist theory (Disch and Hawkesworth, 2016; hooks, 2000)	Social reality is gendered and constructed through power relations. Gendered perspectives are central to understanding reality.	Emphasizes the importance of gender as a category of analysis. Knowledge is influenced by gender power relations.	Committed to revealing and challenging gender inequalities.	Qualitative, incorporating diverse women's voices.	Can be embraced	If it supports feminist objectives and serves to highlight inequalities.
Critical race theory (Delgado and Stefancic, 2023; Ladson-Billings and Tate, 1995; Lynn and Dixson, 2021)	Holds that racism is an ingrained feature of society, structurally embedded within systems and institutions.	Emphasizes the validity of experiential knowledge from marginalized groups, using narratives and storytelling to uncover racial injustices.	Values social justice and aims to dismantle racial hierarchies.	Primarily employs qualitative methods like storytelling, counter-storytelling, and analysis of cultural artifacts.	Limited use	Cautious use of quantitizing because it might reduce complex social issues to numerical data, potentially obscuring the depth of racial issues. Primarily used to support or to highlight qualitative findings.
Postmodernism (Jameson, 2014; Taylor and Winquist, 2002)	Questions the stability of the social world and denies a single, unifying reality. Skeptical of grand narratives; reality is fragmented and pluralistic.	Knowledge is contingent, fragmented, historically situated, constructed, and varied.	Often rejects grand narratives; values plurality and diversity of interpretations. Challenges meta-narratives and totalizing explanations.	Prefers qualitative methods that emphasize complexity and contradiction; Diverse, often deconstructive or ironic.	Typically resists quantitizing	Instead, valuing multiplicity and the deconstruction of categories. Generally opposed due to its challenge to singular truths.
Post structuralism (Dillet, 2017; Williams, 2022)	Reality is constructed through discourse; structures are both enabling and constraining. Structures and human relationships are fluid, not fixed.	Knowledge is produced within specific historical and cultural contexts. Knowledge is constructed through discourses and language.	Critically examines how power affects knowledge production.	Uses textual analysis, discourse analysis and other qualitative methods.	Seldom of interest	Focus is on deconstruction of texts and discourses and on how narratives and knowledge are constructed.
Symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969; Carter and Fuller, 2015)	Reality is constructed through social interactions and the use of symbols.	Knowledge is constructed through social interactions. Knowledge comes from the interpretation of these interactions.	Emphasizes understanding the subjective meanings and symbols individuals use. Often implicit, focusing on subjective meanings.	Uses qualitative methods such as observational studies and grounded theory; interpretative qualitative methods.	Occasionally of use.	When the goal is to generalize findings.
Phenomenology: (Moustakas, 1994) At least 29 phenomenological-based philosophies: Descriptive phenomenology (Giorgi, 2009; Todres and Holloway, 2004) Interpretive phenomenology (Tuohy et al., 2013) Reflective/Transcendental phenomenology (Husserl, 1970) Dialogical phenomenology (Herman, 2007) Empirical phenomenology (Mortari et al., 2023) Existential phenomenology (von Eckartsberg, 1998) Hermeneutic phenomenology (Laverty, 2003) Social phenomenology (Chelstrom, 2012) Psychological phenomenology (Giorgi, 1985) Ethnographic phenomenology (Rodgers, 2021) Genetic phenomenology (Lohmar, 2011) Constitutive phenomenology (Sandmeyer, 2008) Narrative phenomenology (Maggio, 2016; Shibolet, 2019; Zafran, 2020) Ethical phenomenology (Kirchin, 2003) Ecological phenomenology (Kule, 2018; van der Schyff, 2010; Wood, 2001) Neuro-phenomenology (Featherstone et al., 2013; Peters, 2000) Eidetic phenomenology (Purcell, 2010) Post-intentional phenomenology (Soule and Freeman, 2019; Vagle and Hofsess, 2016) Transpersonal phenomenology (Laughlin and Rock, 2021; Levin, 1988) Intercultural phenomenology (Hong, 2023) Phenomenological anthropology (Schnegg, 2023) Phenomenological sociology (Ferguson, 2006; Overgaard and Zahavi, 2009; Srubar, 1984) Aesthetic phenomenology (Vandenabeele, 2016) Phenomenology of perception (Merleau-Ponty, 2013) Phenomenology of religion (Cox, 2010) Feminist phenomenology (Oksala, 2004) Phenomenology of time (Kortooms, 2002) Political phenomenology (Bedorf and Herrmann, 2019) Phenomenology of embodiment (Moran, 2013)	In general, the focus is on the lived experience and essence of phenomena.	Knowledge is subjective and grounded in individual experience.	In general, the emphasis is on the importance of the researcher's openness to participants' experiences.	Uses qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews and participant observation.	Rarely used, except for empirical phenomenology (which relies on observations and descriptions that can be quantified; quantitizing can enhance the breadth and generalizability of findings), neuro-phenomenology (which involves linking phenomenological accounts with neurological data, often requiring quantitative measures to correlate experiential data with brain activity), eco-phenomenology (to understand better ecological data and patterns that often require quantitative analysis for environmental studies), psychological phenomenology (can incorporate quantitizing to explore broader psychological trends and patterns, potentially employing statistical methods to generalize findings)	Most phenomenological approaches and ethnomethodology prioritize qualitative methodologies due to their focus on deep, contextual, and interpretative aspects of human experiences. Quantitizing is generally less common and often viewed as potentially detracting from the depth and integrity of the phenomenological inquiry—especially for hermeneutic phenomenology (focused on deep interpretation of texts and experiences, it relies heavily on qualitative analysis to uncover meanings within historical and cultural contexts), existential phenomenology (centers on individual existence and personal experiences, often exploring profound existential themes that are difficult to quantify), transpersonal phenomenology (explores dimensions of human experience that transcend the individual, often delving into spiritual or transcendent aspects that are not easily quantified), reflective/transcendental phenomenology (focus on subjective introspection and essence often leads to a rejection of quantitizing, which is seen as potentially oversimplifying or misrepresenting the depth of lived experiences), dialogical phenomenology (emphasizes understanding through dialogue and relational interactions, wherein the richness of conversational context is more meaningful than quantitative data), ethical phenomenology (centers on moral and ethical dimensions of experiences, which are intrinsically qualitative and subjective, making quantitizing less relevant and rarely embraced), anti-conflationist phenomenology (emphasizes the separation of methodologies to maintain epistemological purity, likely rejecting quantitizing as it could blur the clear methodological distinctions valued by this approach)

Adapted from “Philosophical assumptions and stances of the most common mixed methods research-based research philosophies,” by Onwuegbuzie, 2024. Dialectical Publishing, pp. 10–12. Copyright 2024 by Dialectical Publishing.