Objectivity

• Objectivity is the extent to which researchers have ensured their own values and beliefs have not have any influence on their research
• Value imposition is when a researcher's values intrude into the research process
• Qualitative methods may use leading questions, leading body language, and cherry picking in their summary which lowers objectivity
• Positivists criticise interpretivists for being too close to those they study and their inability to maintain objectivity
• Interpretivist methods may result in them 'going native' as they want to protect the people they have become close with and cease to report objectively.
• Reflexivity is a way of maintaining objectivity by keeping research diaries that document each stage and allows for self evaluation.
• Interpretivists use respondent validation to overcome value imposition by seeking collaboration with participants.
• Positivists try to be value free by avoiding having values like feminism and Marxism does as this distorts their neutrality
• Positivists use quantitative methods as they 'speak for themselves' and need no interpretation which could lead to bias