Positivists and quantitative researchers argue that standardisation, and distance from the research object does not guarantee objectivity because the perceptions and meanings of the researcher penetrate the research process in many ways.
Feminists criticise positivist research – among other things – because it has a gendered character.
Subjective meaning is a concept that refers to the ways in which people make sense of their world, and assign meanings to objects and relations.
Structuration and interpretation are instrumental within the domain of quantitative methodology.
Nomological thinking means normativism and value-bound inquiry.
Quantitative methodology employs an inductive analysis, qualitative methodology employs a deductive analysis.
Nomothetic research has the purpose of establishing law-like statements, such as causes and consequences.
For positivists, quantification results in the creation of meanings which are closer to the beliefs of the researchers than of the respondents.
For qualitative researchers, the social world is always a human creation, not a discovery.
Qualitative research sees outcome as process not as product.
Phenomenology does not reject outright the existence of an objectively experienced world; phenomenology is objectivist.
In phenomenology, bracketing means setting cultural norms, values and principles in brackets so that they can be used most effectively when experiencing the world.
It is correct to say that quantitative research is inductive, but qualitative research is deductive.
In quantitative research researchers take a passive role, but in qualitative research they take an active role.
Qualitative research uses a static and rigid approach; quantitative research uses a dynamic approach.
Research projects can use either quantitative or qualitative methods. The stepwise conversion model is an example of this.
Ontology is about how knowledge and truths can be identified and recorded.
Epistemology is about what we mean when we talk about reality.
Quantitative methods are employed within a paradigm informed by an empiricist epistemology and a realist ontology.
A paradigm working within a realist/objectivist ideology is positivism.
The notion that reality is virtual and that it is shaped by historical events and conditions is akin to relativism.
Realism states that reality is objective, ‘out there’, waiting to be discovered.
Empiricism supports the view that knowledge comes through experience, mediated through the senses.
Methodological anarchists propose that methodologies and methods should be eliminated.
The purpose of interpretive research is – among other things – to understand social behaviour.
The purpose of positivist research is – among other things – to emancipate, and empower people.