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