Sociological methods

Sociological methods

1. Positivism: an approach in sociology that believes society can be studied using similar scientific techniques to those used in the natural science

   • Positivism believes that, just as there are causes of things in the natural world, so there are external social forces, making up a society's social structures, that cause or mould people's ideas and actions
     • Durkheim called these external forces social facts
   • Positivism believe social institutions create expectations of how individuals should behave and limit their choices and options, with social control making individuals behave in socially approved ways
     • Durkheim said the aim of sociology should be the study of social facts

2. The main research methods in sociological broadly flow from two different theoretical or methodological approaches to the study of society