ABSTRACT
Researchers from many countries and many fields of enquiry, such as psychology, education, sociology and health promotion have raised the question of how we can best approach the study of cyberbullying. Traditionally, researchers favor one or other of the investigative paradigms: quantitative or qualitative, determined either according to their field of enquiry or their beliefs and ways of interacting with the world. Each brings with it a set of standards and processes which guide researchers’ actions. Increasingly, however, mixed methodologies are being employed across many disciplines. Education and sociology, for example, often employ qualitative/interpretive approaches such as: naturalistic enquiry, critical theory, interpretivism, constructivism, or feminist and emancipist enquiry, which are founded upon the notion that human beings are active agents in their social worlds, constructing meaning, which is constantly being created, changed, modified and developed through interaction. This paradigm supports that there are many “truths” and multiple realities. Psychology, on the other hand, traditionally favors empirical methods founded on positivism, with an emphasis on objective reality, where directly observable and measurable behaviors are considered, and theories tested.
