what is mean by subjectivity and objectivity in research?
Answers
Positivism (objective) Interpretivism (subjective)
Regards the world as objectively ‘out there’, real and completely separate from human meaning-making. Claims that the only world we can study is a world of meanings, represented in the signs and symbols that people use to think and to communicate.
Asserts there is only one true, objective knowledge that transcends time and cultural location. Accepts that there are multiple knowledges, and that knowledge is highly contingent on time and cultural location.
Views knowledge as based on facts that are ‘out there in the world’ waiting to be discovered. Views knowledge as constructed through people’s meaning-making.
Asks of knowledge:
Is it true?
Asks of knowledge:
What does it do?
How can it be used – by whom, and to what end?
Whose interest does it serve?
What does it make possible?