Exploring Research Methodologies: Positivism and Interpretivism

Exploring Research Methodologies: Positivism and Interpretivism

Before a researcher can initiate a research project, they face the confusion and the range of theoretical perspectives, methodologies, methods, and the philosophical basis that encompasses them all. This seemingly meticulous structure for the research process is in fact aimed toward providing the researcher with a ‘scaffolding’, or a direction which they can go on to develop themselves to coincide with their particular research purposes. (Crotty, 1998)

Once a researcher has developed a research question they are seeking to answer, they must consider what methodologies and methods they will employ in the research; what theoretical perspective lies behind the methodology; and what epistemology informs this theoretical perspective. (Crotty, 1998)

Before continuing it is important to explain these key terms:

Epistemology is ‘the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge, which seeks to inform us how we can know the world.’ (Jary and Jary: Dictionary of Sociology, 1991) In the context of social research, epistemology is the form of proof one requires to justify a claim to knowledge about the social world. This will have a salient impact on the kind of data one can collect in order to validate their arguments concerning the social world (methodology), as well as the methods one considers in collecting valid data (methods). A researcher’s choice of methods will be conditioned by theoretical perspectives, the way one sees the social world. (Livesey)

Researchers of social science use a wide variety of research methods to gain and enhance knowledge and theory. The different types of research methodologies, quantitative and qualitative, are associated with the epistemological and theoretical perspectives the researcher wishes to adopt. This choice the researcher makes determines the way in which research should be conducted.

This paper will discuss, critically analyse and compare the epistemological and theoretical perspectives of two research methodologies used for social research: positivism and interpretivism. The various research methods used within the frameworks of each of these will then be discussed.

Positivism

There are two main types of epistemologies: positivist and anti-positivist. “Positivist research is an approach which combines a deductive approach with precise measurement of quantitative data to enable the discovery and confirmation of casual laws to predict human behaviour.” (Neuman, 2000) In the social sciences, the criteria positivism as a theoretical perspective shapes reality to be objective: free of bias, opinion or prejudice; and that there is one reality in nature, one truth. The principle purposes of social research, in a positivist approach, are to explain social life and predict the course of events. Positivism has received a great deal of criticism for use as a social research methodology as quantitative methods can be argued as unsuitable for research of human beings.

“The individual is relegated to being nothing more than a system outcome, not a thinking and acting human.” (Kelly & Charlton, 1995)

Quantitative methods use numerical data, facts and universal laws to perform research. These methods of science used to study the natural world, are arguably impossible for the study of human affairs. Epistemological dimension of positivism understands human behaviour as patterned, orderly and relatively stable. Therefore, methodologically, a positivist will use objective methods to collect data about human behaviour.

“While the positivist tradition is perhaps one of the least appropriate approaches to the social world it is, paradoxically, one of the most commonly employed.”(Lawson, 1997)

There are divisions of opinion amongst sociologists about the extent to which sociology is capable of producing objective understanding of life. The positivist concept is that the principles of science can be applied to the study of people. Therein lies the main question a researcher must consider: Can sociology, or any form of social science, be considered to be scientific?

“…the principle legacy of positivism today is an enduring belief in the dichotomy between objective knowledge and subjective opinion.” (Buchanan, 1998)

Positivist, or quantitative methods used for social research, trying to be systematic, objective and precise, are criticized as being flawed for excluding too much that needs to be included; such as failing to take account of essential characteristics of human behaviour and social life, which cannot be measured, or predicted using numbers or universal