PSY1023 Chap.1 Ways of Knowing: Ontology and Epistemology
Ways of Knowing: Ontology and Epistemology
Every psychological study begins with assumptions that are rarely written down. Before a researcher chooses a questionnaire, an experiment or an interview, they have already taken a view on what kind of thing behaviour is and what would count as knowing something about it. Week 1 of PSY1023 makes those assumptions explicit, and the rest of the unit keeps returning to them.
The chapter works through four linked levels.
Ontology deals with the nature of reality: is there one reality, are there many, or do an objective reality and many perceived realities exist together? Epistemology deals with how that reality can be known, whether through reason, through experiment, or through the meanings people construct.
Methodology is the overall strategy that follows from those positions, and methods are the specific tools for collecting and analysing data. Seeing the four as a chain is the key move, because a method only makes sense when it fits the assumptions above it.
You will meet the three ontological positions the unit names, realism, critical realism and relativism, and the epistemologies that sit alongside them.
Positivism receives special attention because it shaped psychology's identity as a natural science: it values systematic observation, questions answered without the researcher's values intruding, and findings made public through journals.
The seminar also sets out its weaknesses, which open the door to constructivist and critical realist alternatives that treat the researcher's perspective as part of the picture.
The chapter closes on the researcher.
In much quantitative work the researcher is cast as a detached expert controlling variables; in qualitative work the researcher is a learner inside the participants' world, expected to acknowledge values and practise reflexivity. These ideas are not abstract revision points.
The first assessment task asks you to define your own ontology and epistemology and explain what shaped them, so the vocabulary here becomes the language of your own writing within the first month of semester.
What this chapter covers
- 01
What psychology studies and why its history matters
- 02
The four levels from ontology to methods
- 03
Realism, critical realism and relativism
- 04
Rationalism, empiricism and positivism
- 05
Constructivism and subjectivism
- 06
Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methodologies
- 07
The researcher as expert or learner
Worked example · free
Diagnose the ontology behind a research proposal
- 1Identify the ontology: the phrase “the true effect” assumes one reality that exists independently of the students, which is a realist ontology.
- 2Identify the epistemology: knowledge is treated as something gained only by counting and measuring, which matches empiricism and the positivist assumptions of systematic, value-free observation.
- 1Raise a limitation: positivism tends to over-emphasise causality and assumes the researcher can be fully objective, so the survey may miss what lost sleep means to the students and how they explain it.
- 2Reframe: a critical realist group could keep the survey to estimate sleep loss, accepting it as a real physiological change, and add short interviews to understand how students perceive and interpret that change.
Key terms
- Ontology
- The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of reality, including whether reality is single, multiple or both.
- Epistemology
- A theory of how knowledge about reality can be obtained and what counts as good evidence for it.
- Positivism
- An epistemology that treats systematic, value-free observation and measurement as the route to objective knowledge and general causal laws.
- Relativism
- An ontological position holding that there are many truths and that facts depend on the viewpoint of the observer.
- Constructivism
- The view that people actively construct meaning from facts and events, so experience shapes how reality is understood.
- Methodology
- The overarching strategy and rationale of a study, chosen to match its objectives and assumptions.
Ways of Knowing: Ontology and Epistemology FAQ
What is the difference between ontology and epistemology?
Ontology is about what reality is, for example one truth or many truths. Epistemology is about how anyone can come to know that reality, for example through reason, experiment or interpretation. A researcher settles the first before the second makes sense.
Is critical realism the same as relativism?
No. Relativism holds that facts depend entirely on the observer's viewpoint. Critical realism keeps an objective reality but argues that our knowledge of it is partial and shaped by perspective, so it sits between realism and relativism.
Why does the unit spend so long on positivism?
Positivism shaped psychology's identity as a natural science and remains the most common epistemology in the discipline. Understanding its strengths, such as measurable and generalisable findings, and its weaknesses, such as doubtful objectivity, explains why qualitative methods developed.
How is methodology different from method?
Methodology is the overall strategy and its justification, such as taking a qualitative approach because meaning is the target. A method is a concrete procedure inside that strategy, such as a semi-structured interview or an online questionnaire.
Do I have to pick one position for the Critical Reflection?
The task asks you to define your current ontology and epistemology using specific named positions and to explain the experiences, culture and sources that shaped them. Being honest about uncertainty is acceptable, but vague labels without reasons are not.
Assessment move
Build a one-page map before the first tutorial. Draw the four levels from ontology to methods down the left margin, then add one sentence for each of realism, critical realism and relativism describing what it says about facts. Next to each, write the epistemology that most naturally follows and a research method that would suit it.
Test the map by taking a familiar psychological claim, such as a claim about memory or stress, and asking how each position would study it. Then practise the reverse: read the method section of one starting reference for your project sub-topic and infer which assumptions the authors must hold, noting the words that give them away. Because the first assessment is reflective, add a personal column.
For each position, note one experience, belief from your culture, or source of information that pulls you toward it or away from it. That column will be the raw material for a reflection that explains how your view formed instead of only naming it.
Finally, rehearse the assumptions about methodology that the seminar holds up for questioning, so you can recognise them in your own writing, especially the idea that qualitative research is simply a fallback for a small sample.
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