In nursing research, paradigms are essential to help to place the research into a broader context. According to Polit and Hungler (1997) paradigms constitute a worldview or a general perspective on the complexities of the real world. More specifically, paradigms for human inquiry are often characterized in terms of the way in which they respond to basic philosophical questions (p.11). In this sense of the term, then, paradigms are more than typical examples or models. Rather, they demonstrate relationships between ideas and provide a basis for a methodology or a theory, and as such, they are useful as lenses for viewing and interpreting significant, substantive issues to the discipline. Thus, paradigms that are often used for nursing research, such as empiricist, interpretive and critical social paradigms, provide frames that hold the vocabulary, theories, principles, presuppositions and values related to an inquiry.
Development by Comparison or Contrast
High School and College
Even though high school and college are both institutions of learning, they differ in at least three ways. The first difference between high school and college is their social Atmospheres. In high school the facility is usually smaller, and students are, for the most part, well acquainted with each other. In addition, students in high school have the same six hours 7:45 to 1:45 day, thus helping them to know one another better. On the college scene people are constantly coming and going, therefore rarely seeing the same person twice in a day, which accounts for fewer people being acquainted with each other. The second difference between high school and college is their policies about homework. In high school, homework is required to help motivate students to study. Knowing they have to submit assignments in algebra or history gives students an incentive to keep up with these subjects. In college most homework consists of studying very little of it is