The document discusses two major influences on the choice of research method in sociology - positivism and interpretivism. Positivism views society like the natural sciences and uses quantitative methods to study social facts objectively from the outside. Interpretivism believes behavior is influenced by personal meanings and uses qualitative methods like participant observation to understand perspectives from within by getting involved. The two approaches differ in whether they take a macro or micro view of society and use structured or unstructured, large-scale or small-scale research techniques.

1. WHICH RESEARCH
METHOD?
AS Sociology M2

2. INFLUENCES ON THE CHOICE OF
RESEARCH METHOD…THEORY
positivism
interpretivism

3. IN SHORT….
Positivism – believes that society can be
studies using similar techniques to the
natural sciences
Interpretivism – people have personal
beliefs, values and interpret the world in
different ways. They so not simply respond
to forces outside them
These two sets of sociologists have
different ideas about society which
influences the type of data they are
interested in collecting.

4. Research Methods
POSITIVISM

5. POSITIVISM AND RESEARCH
METHODS
 Society is studied in the same way as the natural world
 In the natural world there are causes for events, it is the same in
the social world
 Social facts – are the institutions which shape society cause us be
behave in a certain way or limit our behaviour through social
control
 These include things like socialization, the education system, the
family, the mass media, the legal system and the work place
 These social facts can be studied like objects in the natural world.

6. METHODS USED
 Positivists use quantitative methods
 They want to be able to check for reliability, find reasons for
events and make generalizations
 They do not study feelings, emotions and motives of people as
they believe they can not be quantified.
 Positivists tend to be macro theorist such as functionalists and
Marxists

7. Research Methods
INTERPRETIVISM

8. IDEAS AND METHODS
 They believe that behaviour is influenced by the meanings that
people give to social situations
 Use research methods to help them to find out how people
understand the world around them
 This process is called VERSTEHEN – understanding human
behaviour by putting yourself in the position of the people you are
studying
 Instead of collecting statistical data, they want to get involved with
their subject
 They will use qualitative methods to gain a detailed in depth
knowledge of the situation they are studying

9. COMPARING THE TWO….
macro micro
 Society constrains our  individuals and groups create
behaviour society
 Structural approaches  Interpretivism approaches
 Positivist approaches  Qualitative methods
 Quantaitive methods  Experience rich data
 Statistical data  Small scale
 Large scale  Unstructured questionnaires
 Structured questionnaires  Unstructured interviews
 Structures interviews
 Participant observation
 Non-participant observation

10. IN SHORT…..
Stay separate Get involved
Objective Subjective
observe participate