Yin and Stake Philosophical Worldviews

Yin and Stake Philosophical Worldviews My perspective as a qualitative doctoral researcher more closely aligns with Yin’s worldview than with Stake’s. As Yazan (2015) notes, Yin’s approach to case study research was rather systematic: he wanted to ensure that researchers could apply the case study design by following a standardized method that would allow the design to be used as a legitimate method of research in the social sciences.

Yin’s perspective was positivistic in the sense that he believed “objectivity, validity and generalizability” could be achieved in case study research (Yazan, 2015, p. 136). As Yazan (2015) also points out, Yin believed that case study research should “maximize four conditions related to design quality: construct validity, internal validity, external validity, and reliability” (p. 137).

Validity and reliability were yardsticks that Yin suggested every case study researcher keep in mind when conducting research and have available so as to constantly be mindful of the usefulness and utility of the research and whether or not it would be viewed favorably by other researchers in the field.

By focusing on validity and reliability in case study research, Yin wanted to show that it was possible for this type of study to meet the necessary conditions of validity and reliability in order to show other researchers exactly how the findings were obtained and why the study measured what it set out to measure. For me, I believe Yin’s philosophical worldview, which is rooted in positivism, is the one I most align with.

Positivism is a philosophical belief that all rational and justifiable statements can be verified scientifically. I hold this same belief because science is really the act of verifying reality. So if a statement or assertion is logical, rational and true, it should be able to be verified scientifically. The opinion that Yin holds is that case study research can produce legitimate, rational and logical findings that are true and thus they can also be verified scientifically.

That is why he places so much emphasis on maintaining mindfulness of validity and reliability. Stake’s philosophical worldview was based more upon the ideas of existentialism and constructivism (Yazan, 2015). In other words, Stake viewed that everyone constructs their own meaning and their own sense of what it is to exist. This perspective places more emphasis on the subjective experience than on the objective experience.

As a researcher, I believe that the objective evidence should be the primary focus and that, even if one is examining the experience of a participant or a case study subject, that personal experience which has so many subjective facets can still be studied objectively—and that is the argument that Yin makes. Stake, on the other hand, held the opinion that “knowledge is constructed rather than discovered” (Yazan, 2015, p. 137). For stake, there is less focus on the importance of validity and reliability in qualitative research.

The aim of case study research for Stake is merely to allow the researcher to put forward an interpretation of the subject’s experience, which is then interpreted by those who read the report. Knowledge is continuously constructed and deconstructed and constructed again. Every interaction with knowledge leads to a construction/deconstruction type of situation in which the subjective experience is elevated above that of the objective reality.

For me personally, I find such a worldview to be detrimental to the science of research as it limits the usefulness and applicability of one’s findings. For example, if every individual has a unique take on the data, there can be no consensus opinion formed. Evidence-based practice becomes nothing more than a preference for one model over another. Data and proof become just constructs in the subjective experience or interpretation of facts.

What sort of implication does this have on the concepts of truth, rationality, logic and objectivity? I think that Yin was correct to focus so thoroughly on showing how case study research can be conducted in a manner that ensures validity and reliability. In my own case study research, I aim to focus as much on these concepts as well because I want my research to be understood and capable of being verified by others.

The facts should speak for themselves, and if they cannot be scientifically supported, then what good are they to begin with? We live in a world where logic and reason are crucial to saving lives because that is what scientific knowledge is based—the concept that if A occurs then B must follow. One cannot say that he prefers that C should follow A just because he prefers to construct his own knowledge in his own way. This would jeopardize so many disciplines across so many fields.

Stake’s approach can help new ideas to emerge organically from research, as Boblin, Ireland, Kirkpatrick and Robertson (2013) show: “Stake’s constructivist approach provided adequate guidance without creating undue restriction. Our experience was that new ideas were revealed that might not have emerged if more structure, such as Yin’s (2003,.