INTERPRETIVE RESEARCH
Distinctions from Positivist Research:
-uses “sense making” processes to interpret reality rather than hypothesis testing processes
-leans more toward using qualitative data, can use quantitative data at times to clear up confusion in some cases
-Interpretive Research uses theoretical sampling (choosing test subjects based on whether or not they fit the criteria in which is being studied) versus Positivist Research which uses Random Sampling (choosing participants or data points at random in a given population)
-The researcher’ role is also different in the two. Interpretive Research, researchers must be explicit in their role and bias each time because they are apart of the social phenomenon. In Positivist Research, researchers are independent of the study and do not have any influence or bias.
-Interpretive focus on languages, signs, and meaning. Positivist focus on statistics, systematic and analytical approaches.
-Interpretive Research methods can be altered and adapted at any point during data collection. Positivist Research cannot alter data collection methods until the first trial is done, or they have to start anew each time.
Benefits and Challenges of Interpretive Research
-Advantages: good to use in complex and unique social processes, helpful to derive theories in fields with little data or previous theory, and can lead to helpful discoveries that foster follow up research
-Disadvantages: takes more time and resources than its counterpart (positivist research) generally, takes skilled and trained researchers to interpret results without bias, there can be issues between participant and researchers that include mistrust and lack of knowledge on the social phenomenon studied, hard to reconstruct and replicate, and sometimes the question proposed is not answered.
Characteristics of Interpretive Research
-All Interpretive Research must contain:
-Naturalistic Inquiry: social phenomena must be studied in their natural state
-Researcher as Instrument: researchers are part of the study, must be expert and knowledgeable, and understand their bias as they collect information
-Interpretive Analysis: interpretation at two levels; one being the participants perspective in the phenomenon; second is understanding the perspective of the participant and explain why they acted the way they did
-Use of Expressive Language: analyzing all types of language by participants including body language, sarcasm, and other figures of speech, because it is all apart of the participant reaction
-Temporal Nature: usually dealing with complex social interactions which are going to take long periods of time to study, so the researcher needs to be prepared for that
-Hermeneutic Style: describes an iterative process that goes back and forth between understanding(text) to meaning (context) of a phenomenon and observations continue until a theory is reached, and no more iterations after add to the theory
Interpretive Data Collection
-Techniques popular to use when collecting data include: Interviews, observation (direct and participant), and documentation
Interpretive Research Designs
-Case Research: intensive, longitudinal study to study in depth a social phenomenon, in which the case researcher is neutral
-Action Research: more of a positivist approach and tests theories, which bring in a change or action to a social setting to study the effects they have, the actions are based on theories which simultaneously solving problems and insight generation; the most popular variation invented by Susman and Evered is depicted below:
Ethnography: usually last from 8 months to 2 years, and is the method of studying social phenomenon within the context of its culture, and requires intensive note taking of everyday actions, “sense making” approach, Jane Goodall’s study of chimpanzees is a the epitome of Ethnography
Phenomenology: research method that studies the conscious experience and relating it to reality, based on philosopher, Edmund Husserl, who said human experience is the source of all knowledge, includes analyzing judgement and perception of humans, the following figure depicts the phenomenological research method:
Rigor in Interpretive Research
-Dependability: The agreement between two independent researchers, either at the same time or at different, on the conclusions found
-Confirmability: can the results and research be confirmed independently by others, most of the time it is the participants?
Transferability: can the solutions and findings be generalized to other contexts?
Ashton,
I think you did a great job, summarizing this chapter. You went in depth very well on each section within this chapter on Interpretive Research. After reading your summary and your interpretations of the variations between Interpretive and Positivist research, I felt that I was able to better discern between the two, especially with the distinction between the use of quantitative instead of qualitative data. I think you did a really good job, picking out the main points in each subheading to allow us to see more clearly what was being said. Overall, I think your breakdown of each section in this chapter made things very easy to understand. Because we have had so many different chapters to read each week, I think reading your summary was very beneficial.