Common research paradigms are positivism, interpretivism and critical theory. It helps in choosing the research paradigm and related methodology. It helps to structure research and different aspects of data collection and analysis.

Research paradigm examples Positivist and interpretivist research paradigms, sometimes referred to as quantitative and qualitative paradigms, are the two major approaches to research. However, many other variations of these have been used. Following are brief descriptions of some of the more popular of these research paradigm variations.

What follows is a very brief discussion of the major research paradigms in the fields of information, communication and related disciplines. We are going to take a tour of three research paradigms: positivism, postpositivism and interpretivism.