ABSTRACT
How you see the world is largely a function of where you view it from, what you look at, what lens you use to help you see, what tools you use to clarify your image, what you reflect on and how you report your world to others. Thus, an empirical researcher will see only those things which are conveniently measured in empirical ways. A sociologist will only be concerned with patterns affecting groups and will have little chance of learning about individual motivations except as they relate to group behavior. The behaviorist will focus on reporting and controlling behaviors, whereas the anthropologist’s concern will be on the underlying meaning. Thus, research reflects the values, beliefs and perspectives of the researcher. This is not the same, however, as saying that research is subjective. For valid research, similar approaches should lead to similar conclusions, but different approaches can hardly be expected to lead to exactly the same conclusions. These different approaches cannot even be expected to ask the same questions, let alone realize similar answers. Thus, few researchers are truly unbiased or value-neutral, obviously carrying a baggage of beliefs, assumptions, inclinations and approaches to reality.
