Positivism vs interpretivism Flashcards
What are researcher methods?
Flow from the 2 theoretical approaches
What are the 2 theoretical approaches?
Positivism and interpretivism
What is positivism theory?
An approach in sociology that believes society can be studied by using similar scientific to those in natural sciences, such as chemistry and biology
A large scale research
What do positivism belif?
their are external social forces that cause or people ideas and actions
e.g. such as natural science says water means ryst
this means education says respect for authority
they establish a cause and effect relationship
What dies Durkheim (a positivism) call external forces?
Social forces
What data does positivism produces?
Quantitative data- numerical data
Positives of quantitative data?
Hard facts
Easier to analyse
Negatives of quantitative data?
Not in depth
No vales
Doesn’t look at how it makes people feel
Quantitative methods?
Non- participant observations (structural observations)
Survay method (questionares/structured interviews)
-Experimeants
-Statstics
What is primary data?
New data collected by the researcher themselves
What is secondary data?
Using existing sources of data for analysis
What is interpretivism?
An approach concerned with how people interpret the world around them before they act
Understand small scale interaction is the key to understanding society as a whole
micro
Interpretivism belief’s?
the reaserchers task is to gain an indebth understaning of how people see and understand the world around them
Sociolgists should use reaserch methods which provide an understaning from the point of view of individuals and groups
Interpretivism what does verstehen mean?
to get inside their heads
What data does interatism provide?
qualitative data- non numerical written
