positivism and research methods

positivism and research methods

1. there are external social forces which make up a societies structure that mould peoples ideas and actions

   • Durkheim called these social facts

2. positivist believe social institutions create expectations of how individuals should behave

3. Durkheim said the aim of sociology should be to study social facts such as nature which can be observed quantively

   • feelings and emotions cannot be observed/measured therefore they should not be studied.
     • Durkheim did a study on suicide statistics to try and establish the social causes of suicide.

4. positivists argue without quantification sociology will lack evidence and it will be impossible to replicate studies to check findings and find out causes.

5. more likely to use a macro approach

   • used on large amounts of people
   • this method includes: experiment, comparative method, social surveys, structured questionaires, social surveys, structured questionaires,formal/structured interviews and non participant observation