The Positivist criticisms of Interpretivist research

The Positivist criticisms of Interpretivist research

1. The research will be part of the study therefor there is a possibility that their presence may become obtrusive and influence the behaviour that is being researched.

2. Research in unsystematic and unstructured as it focuses on naturally occurring behaviour. Positivist criticise the fact that Interpretivist often make no attempts to control possible influential indecent variables or causes.

3. A rapport is built up between the researcher and there research group. However it is not reliable as it can not be replicated, if another sociologist did the same research and had similar social characteristics they would still build a qualitativley different relationship with the group. Consequently the data would be different.

4. The qualitative data may be biased as it is a result of the researchers subjective and selective interpretation (the researcher has experienced thousands of social interactions but only a few have been selected to be analysed). The data therefore is unrepresentative, and may have only been selected as it supports the researchers point if view.

5. It isn't possible to judge from the ethnographic research whether the social context or the people studied are in any way typical or representative.

6. Ethnography is criticised as a methodological approach as it involves a narrow view on the study group. The research fails to asses the impact of struck influences such as social class or patriarchy on the behaviour of the group being studied