Therefore, reliability and representativeness of data is undermined to a certain extent as well. On the positive side, thanks to adoption of interpretivism, qualitative research areas such as cross-cultural differences in organizations, issues of ethics, leadership and analysis of factors impacting leadership etc. Primary data generated via Interpretivism studies might be associated with a high level of validity because data in such studies tends to be trustworthy and honest.
Generally, if you are following interpretivism research philosophy in your dissertation the depth of discussion of research philosophy depends on the level of your studies. At a PhD level, on the other hand, discussion of research philosophy can cover several pages and you are expected to discuss the essence of interpretivism by referring to several relevant secondary data sources. Your justification for the selection of interpretivism need to be offered in a succinct way in about two paragraphs.
My e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Dissertation in Business Studies: a step by step assistance contains discussions of theory and application of research philosophy. The e-book also explains all stages of the research process starting from the selection of the research area to writing personal reflection.
Learn how your comment data is processed. Skip to content Positivists believe society shapes the individual and use quantitative methods, intepretivists believe individuals shape society and use qualitative methods.
Positivism Positivists prefer quantitative methods such as social surveys, structured questionnaires and official statistics because these have good reliability and representativeness.
The positivist tradition stresses the importance of doing quantitative research such as large scale surveys in order to get an overview of society as a whole and to uncover social trends, such as the relationship between educational achievement and social class.
This type of sociology is more interested in trends and patterns rather than individuals. This is known as the comparative method. Interpretivism An Interpretivist approach to social research would be much more qualitative, using methods such as unstructured interviews or participant observation Interpretivists , or anti-positivists argue that individuals are not just puppets who react to external social forces as Positivists believe.
Positivism and Interpretivism Summary Grid. Does triangulation solves the differences between positivism and interpretivism? Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Previous Previous post: Is Childhood Disappearing? This website uses cookies to improve your experience. He believed that society was entering the later stage, where a positive philosophy of science was emerging as a result of advances in scientific inquiry and logical thinking. Moreover, there are five basic principles at the foundation of positivism:.
The logic of inquiry is the same across all sciences. The aim of science is to explain, predict and discover. Scientific knowledge is testable, i.
Science is not equal to common sense. Science should remain free of values and should be judged by logic. Furthermore, in social research, positivism refers to an approach to the study of society through scientific methods. In research, positivists prefer quantitative methods such as structured questionnaires, social surveys, and official statistics. Moreover, positivists consider the social sciences to be as scientific as the natural sciences. The scientific methods they use in research involve generating theories and hypotheses and then testing them using direct observations or empirical research.
More importantly, these scientific methodologies allow them to gain trustworthy, objective and generalizable data. Interpretivism is a more qualitative approach to social research. Interpretivists are of the view that individuals are complex and intricate people, not just puppets reacting to external social forces. According to them, individuals experience the same reality in different ways and they often have different ways of behaving.
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