benefits and drawbacks of interpretivism and positivism

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  • Created by: bamba
  • Created on: 22-01-20 09:46
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  • benefits and drawbacks of positivist and interpretivist research
    • Positivism
      • it relies on quantitative data that positivists believe is more reliable than qualitative as it is more scientific
        • it provides objective information which is seen as more trustworthy, feelings and emotions are bypassed.
      • Positivism follows a set structure with rules, they believe this leaves minimum room for error
      • positivism disregards human behaviour and emotions, however this is not always possible as it is inseparable with human interaction
      • positivists are inflexible in their research and they disregard the concept of lateral thinking, which is coming up with creative and indirect explanations, but solely thinking objectively
    • Interpretivism
      • a subjective method of research that uses qualitative data
        • this creates a strong relationship with the participant with achieves verstehen, this causes high validity because of strong rapport
      • individual participant reports cannot be generalisable and will not be representative to large groups
        • there is also a lack of reliability as participants may hold back on sensitive information for fear of being exposed to authorities, embarrassment etc.

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