Positivism and Interpretivism

Question 1

What is positivism and what are their core beliefs?

Answer 1

• it is possible to study sociology in a completely scientific and objective way
• social life is not random, there are patterns and predictions in peoples behaviour which can be studied and explained
• human behaviour is shaped by wider social factors rather than free will
• sociologists can look for cause and effect relationships between such factors and human behaviour, as done in science
• positivist use objective methods which require limited interaction between the researcher and their participants
• they use methods which generate quantitative data to uncover trends, such as questionnaires, structured interviews, experiments and official statistics

Question 2

What is interpretivism and what are their core beliefs?

Answer 2

• they reject the idea that sociology should be studied like a science as this is an inappropriate way of understanding humans
• they reject the view that human behaviour is shaped by wider social factors and instead regard peoples as having free will and choice
• society does not simply “exist”, everything we know is socially constructed and society is constantly changing and evolving
• individuals can interpret the world around them in very different ways to one another
• they use methods which enable them to get a realistic insight into peoples experiences of social life, they aim to achieve verstehen
• use methods which generate qualitative data to get a detailed insight into peoples experiences, such as unstructured interviews, observations and documents