Role of Quantitative Methods in Quantifying

This editorial highlights the significance of realizing the underlying assumptions of positivism. Specifically, researchers in general and social scientists in particular ought to be aware of, and realize, the assumed objective reality that they are trying to measure in their research. The prevalence of positivism and, later, logical empiricism as an epistemological philosophy of inquiry in science (Caldwell, 1994; see also Kolakowski, 1968; Smith, 1984a) is a factor contributing to the assumption about the existence of reality in social life. “Positivism insists that only one truth exists.” (Lather, 1986: 259) Accordingly, positivists believe in the existence of a single reality for any given phenomenon. For them, “reality is a concrete and objective structure that is external to the researcher and open to being reduced to explanatory (independent) and dependent variables via laws that express their relationship." (Major, 2017:173) The assumption of the existence of reality in observed phenomena in social life further permits the assumption of the measurability of such a reality (see Cook, 1985). Researchers in social science utilize various measurement procedures to measure reality (see Al-Adeem, 2017). A measurement procedure entails the attachment of values (Wolk, Dodd & Tearney, 2004) to: manifesting characteristics that can be observed directly and latent traits (attributes) that can be theorized and indirectly measured. In measuring manifest variables and latent constructs, objectivity must be maintained to ensure to some extent, and with limitations, generalizable inferences and conclusions.