Positivism

Positivism

1. Positivism Method

   • Facts must be gathered according to strict rules
   • Quantitative data

2. Look for objective causes of human behaviour

   • Explain behaviour by looking for social facts which are external to the individual
   • Interested in finding trends and patterns
     • Look for correlations

3. Aim to be scientific

   • To reduce explanations to a limited number of causes
   • Objective

4. Want research to be ...

   • Generalisable
   • Representative
   • Reliable

5. Universal laws

   • Replication = reliability
   • Constant conjunction - causality and induction

6. Problems

   • Many say science can not be objective
     • Wilkinson (2001) - male and female deficit
     • Science involves interpreatations = subjective