Positivism vs Interpretivism | Research Philosophy Made Easy

Positivism and interpretivism are words that many students will be only too familiar with. Yet, it’s not always easy to get your head around exactly what these words mean. In this video, I give you a simple explanation for positivism and interpretivism and talk about the benefits and limitations of both positivism and interpretevism.

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Time stamps-

00:00 Introduction to positivism and interpretevism
00:30 Why does positivism and interpretevism matter?
00:48 Research philosophy
02:55 What is positivism?
04:07 What is interpretevism?
05:25 Positivism vs interpretevism

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[Ashelynneee]

Outline of the Video:

*Positivism and Interpretivism are words that will form part of our research philosophy; the first thing you need to do when you are doing a research project is to determine your research philosophy→ this means you need to define your world views & perspectives in terms of your research.
•you may feel you don’t have world views that affect my research, but don’t worry, it’s basically a pathway you need to follow, like map reading
•first, you determine your data collection method→surveys or interviews, that will be your data collection method, & then you determine: is it qualitative, is it quantitative & what are the underlying philosophical approaches that follow on from that
•you can look through your Research Methods text to help you determine which philosophy aligns with your design

•Research Philosophy→ set of beliefs or metaphysics that represent your (the researcher’s) world-view; the nature of the world, the individual’s place in it, & the range of possible relationships to that world
•this tends to either be scientific, which is often associated with quantitative data collection, or society based, which not always but is often associated with qualitative research

•Positivism & Interpretivism are essential epistemological (relating to the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion) positions adopted by the researcher
•you will choose your epistemological position based on what best fits with your research aims & objectives
•positivism aligns itself with the methods of the natural sciences; it is associated w/ deductive logical reasoning, which means it starts w/ initial theories or hypotheses & it works towards more specific details; it tends to be very black & white→ it either is or isn’t, & it can generally be proved or it cannot
•it does not lend itself particularly well to areas that are not so black & white in nature, such as the study for society for ex.
•positivism uses only research data that is verifiable & is collected in a value-free manner, enabling objective results to be generated & general scientific laws to be created
•it often uses numbers, because a number isn’t subjective in any way; calculations & equations can easily be developed
•interpretivism lends itself well to studies that do have a lot of those grey areas, like society; understanding why or how somebody feels or behaves cannot be achieved through the analysis of numbers
•instead it requires an in depth assessment of words, actions & behaviors, and an interpretivist researcher concentrates on meanings that people bring to situations, & behavior, & the ways that they use this to interpret the world
•an interpretivist researcher believes the reality & the individual who observes it are indeed inseparable; this is because a person’s view of the world are inextricably linked to their life experiences
•an example is if one is a UK trained English language teacher, going to Thailand and teaching there will always have the background of the UK training, no matter how much the teacher tries to delve into Thailand teaching methods; it will always impact how the teacher teaches in Thailand

•which is better, positivism or interpretivism? There are benefits & limitations to both types of research
•a positivist study enables control and precision, and returns verifiable data that is very black & white in nature, whereas interpretivist studies are unable to produce generalized laws in the way that positivist research can, since the data can’t be guaranteed as objective & true, because it’s often grey and subjective; however, a positivist approach is limited in that the data it produces can be pretty inflexible, & it fails to address aspects such as personable beliefs, experiences, & motivations
•interpretivist studies aim to understand things, as opposed to providing the rigid explanations that a positivist study would do; despite their ability to provide in depth and valuable results, interpretivist studies can be criticized for the researchers subjectivity that will inevitably entail throughout the data collection and analysis

•when you do write your research methods chapter, outline whether you will be using interpretivism or positivism & you do need the academic reference in there to support that too, so use the actual Research Methods text to cite within the paper

[franklinpendo]

After spending some 30mins on YouTube, finally I landed on this video. Thank you.

[mwansakamuchoma]

Wow this explanation is wonderful and your voice projection and tone is so heart warming. Am watching you from Zambia.

[amandawei]

I really appreciate your explanation, which is concite and easy to understand, it helps me a lot.

[Kayxcrypto]

I love your lecture, after listening to a lecture at uni and don't get anything, vola.

[alibilal]

Thank you Dr. Hayley ; the explanation is excellent and extremely clear.

[aleksandralazarova]

You are amazing! Thank you for the easy to take information!

[VictorMoreno-twmi]

Very helpful! Thank you so much for this video!

[souheirkhreiss]

You explained it in a clear and simple way! Thank you 🤩

[duncanwalsh]

Absolutely fantastic! I get it I get it I get it! I finally understand these concepts! Many thanks.

[wimbayichasaya.]

Thank you, explained the philosophies clearly.

[gavkoroaha]

Hi Dr Stainton, for a research philosophy, what are your thoughts on pragmatism?

[timothyeria]

Sounds and actually you are a likeable lecturer

[basithabdul]

very good explanation and the energy you have is fantastic

[SijuMarkose]

Thanks a lot
Pragmatism that is my philosophy

[maddison]

this has absolutely saved me for my assignment !

[Prof.Polymath]

What if your using both actual numerical data with visual inspections. Isn’t that mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative, but which of the founding principles is it then, positivism or interpretevism ?

[RanchoPsycho]

Hi 👋
I have a phd interview, and one of the questions in the presentation would be : what critical literature would you draw upon? I am confused what do they mean by this ??? Could you please provide me with some help ??? Thank you

[AbdullahKahramanPhD]

Why the hell your thumbnail has a stocks charts background?