Empiricism is a claim that knowledge is acquired through our senses, personal experiences and observations. Empirical thinking is what led the way for many like Newton and Galileo to prove challenges in their field. Empiricism relates to several quantitative research methods. For example, correlational research design measures experiences of the group based on the two variables (Lodico, Spaulding, and Voegtle, 2010). Also, descriptive research describes behaviors based on perceptions, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs (Lodico, Spaulding, and Voegtle, 2010 ). Similarly, casual-comparative research examines differences in experiences. Within experimental research, the purpose is to decide if independent variable is better, based on experiences (Lodico, Spaulding, and Voegtle, 2010). All of these quantitative research methods center on the idea of using personal experiences to better knowledge or create new knowledge by challenging an existing thought or belief. The scientific method, positivism, and post-positivism are all intertwined, but yet have distinct, separate characteristics. The scientific method is derived out of empirical thinking. Personal experiences, senses, and observations are the foundation for one to create research questions. Once the research question has been created and asked, observations follow, and then a hypothesis is developed. After the development of the hypothesis, it must be tested and observed in order for conclusions to be drawn based on the observations and experiences. Positivism can be summed up using its name. For example, positivism relies on positive facts or testing objects that you can taste, touch, speak, or hear. This contrasts with post-positivism. Post-positivism asserts that knowledge and observations can be weak and unsubstantiated. Similarly, post-positivism believes objectivity is difficult to attain, but not impossible. Objectivity is one of the main goals within post-positivism. It is being able to remain neutral, uninfluenced, and unbiased when researching and conducting the study. Objectivity is crucial to protect the integrity and ethics of the research. However, there are challenges for researchers practicing objectivity. For example, objectivity is difficult to attain. It is difficult for many individuals to disregard their feelings, belief system, and passions in order to objectively collect and interpret research. Another challenge of objectivity is it is rejected by post-modernism, in that it does not support the idea of any knowable truth, except the individuals level of truth. The philosophical developments of scientific realism, social constructivism, advocacy /liberatory, and pragmatic are as follows: Researchers who follow advocacy/liberatory frameworks believe in the significance of persons in small communities creating their own realities. Essentially, they write mini-narratives/biographies that will help to solve problems and issues that arise within their lives. The purpose of this way of thinking is to improve ones family and community, thus it is action-oriented. Since it involves narratives and biographies, it is mostly qualitative in nature. In contrast, another framework is pragmatism. Pragmatism is a way of thinking that focuses on research being used as a way to fix a process or a program. Mixed-methods research often use pragmatic thinking in the process to find something that works. Researchers who use scientific realism tend to research using quantitative methods due to the nature of scientific realism. Essentially, scientific realism claims that a persons perceptions of the world are influenced by real items, such as the world and objects around us (external objects). Scientific realists believe that there is an objective reality. Lastly, social-constructivism is the claim that a person constructs knowledge and builds upon that knowledge, based on experiences. This is similar to post-positivism beliefs. Other frameworks that are used frequently within research are theoretical frameworks and conceptual frameworks. Conceptual frameworks are a set of loose thoughts or beliefs or relationships between two or more different variables (Lodico, Spaulding, and Voegtle, 2010). This leads to theory development and determining actual relationships and propositions between variables. It is due to this reason that conceptual frameworks are a vital part of the research process; however, it is definitely not the last step, in that the theory developed still needs to be proven. Similarly, theoretical frameworks are a vital part of the research process as well. Theoretical frameworks differ from conceptual frameworks in that theoretical frameworks use a different order of methodology. For example, theoretical frame