interpretivism & positivism

• Interpretivists:

  want research to reveal the reasoning behind why their findings are what they are. They want to understand the individual, not just the group as a whole. Interpretivists such as interactionalists would examine a small sample and would use research methods like observations and unstructured interviews.
• positivists:

  want to discover social facts. They use scientific methods to come to a conclusion. They would examine a large sample and would use research methods like closed questionnaires and random sampling - they collect quantitative data.
• Interpretivists - AO3:

  strength(s):

  -detailed (in depth) data.

  -tells you the "why" behind behaviour

  weakness(es):

  -open to interpretation

  -hard to find correlations/trends-time consuming to do interpretivist research
• positivists - AO3:

  strength(s):

  -social facts can be determined

  -objective

  -trends can be used to predict behaviour

  weakness(es):

  -impossible to completely objective

  -tells you the "what" not "why"

  -done in artificial settings