Quantitative data

Structured Observation

Strengths- Positivists prefer

Representative Structured can be replicated

Weakness- No informed consent

Hawthorne effect

Questionares

Strengths- High in reliability can be repeated

Structured- hardly any ethical issues e.g informed consent can withdraw from the questionnaire

Crime survey of England and Wales

Weakness Lack valid data cannot create verstehen people may not answer truthfully

People may not answer and its costly to send out

Structured interviews

Strengths- Representive data to see patterns change over time

Practical and cheap easy to access

Weakness- Not valid no details interperativists do not like

e.g Durkheim’s study of suicide looked at data compared religion and family size for victims

Experiments-

Strengths- Representive easy to repeat

Positivists prefer

Bondura ball- study of how children replicate adults

Weakness- Hawthorne effect

lack of informed consent

Labortory

Strengths- representive easy to repeat

Positivists prefer

Weakness- LAck of informed consent (gatekeepers prevent certain people participating e.g students))

Costly