Interpretivism Case Study

In comparison, anti-positivism rejects naturalism and partakes in an anti-naturalism approach to research. This approach is known as methodological dualism because it separates natural sciences from human sciences (CITE). Anti-naturalism assumes that culture shapes human behavior through reason, values, desires, and traditions. Humans are not autonomous; that is to say, humans are not merely an object but have beliefs and traditions that evoke social practices (Bevir and Rhodes, 2004: 131). For the reason that “the social world is what we experience is to be: it is subjectively created” (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 40). Interpretivism argues that it is impossible to gain knowledge through “objective regularities of behavior” because our interpretations construct the social world (Halperin and Heath, 2012: 40) Anti-positivism, moreover, doesn’t believe that facts rule social behavior, but there is a deeper context to behavior. Rejecting naturalism is a better approach because it moves past the causes of

Or an anti-positivist could ask why there is a gender wage gap in the United States. An anti-positivist would aspire to understand the gender wage gap by observing social interactions, like gender stereotypes, discrimination, or even workplace flexibility (CITE). This approach of interpretation essentially interprets a form of life by “understanding actions, practices, and institutions”, and the “meanings, beliefs and preferences of the people involved” (Bevir and Rhodes 2004, 130). The investigator would attempt to go beyond just explanation but observe, interpret and understand human interactions. In the case of the gender wage gap in the United States, the researcher would observe and interpret social factors that had or hadn’t influenced a patriarchal-like workplace