Theoretical/Methodological approaches to research

Positivism

Sociologists who believe society can and should be studied using the methods of the natural sciences.

Key ideas

• Research should be scientific, objective and quantitative

• Favour methods such as experiments, questionnaires, official statistics

Interpretivism

Sociologists who argue that society should be studied through understanding the meanings, motives, and experiences of individuals.

Key ideas

• Research should be qualitative, exploring how people make sense of the world

• Favour methods such as unstructured interviews, participant observation, personal documents

Objective

Sociologists should be determined to pursue scientific truths with an open mind. Observing without personal bias.

Value freedom

Sociologists should be neutral and now allow their personal or political values or their prejudices bias any aspect of their research method or their interpretation of the data they collect.

Reflexivity

A form of self-evaluation that involves researchers reflecting critically on how they organised the research process, their everyday experiences of it and how a range of influences might’ve positively or negatively affected the validity of findings.

Subjectivity

The job of the interpretivists and sociologists to uncover the subjective experience of their research subjects. This is how they interact with others and how they interpret the social reality they find themselves in.

Verstehen

Developing empathetic understanding to see the world from the participant’s standpoint.

Researcher imposition

Positivist research only focuses on what the sociologist thinks is important and consequently it may neglect what the research subject really thinks.