Positivism

• Positivism is a methodological position that advocated the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond, based on 3 key principles: 

  1. Deductivism- generating hypotheses that can be tested and allow explanations of laws to be assessed  
  2. Objectivity- science must be conducted in a way that is value free and objective.  
  3. Scientific methodology- people should be studied using the same objective methodology as the natural sciences.  
• • Positivist sociologists see society as an objective factual reality, it exists just like the real world. They tend to use quantitative data in order to uncover and measure these patterns of behaviour. This type of data is large scale but criticised by Interpretivists for its failure to study in enough depth and find out why something is the case, rather than just the fact that something is the case. 
  • Believe that by analysing quantitative data, they can discover the objective laws of cause and effect that determines societal patterns and trends
• Positivists favour questionnaires

  Questionnaires are a list of clear, concise, and well-thought-out questions given to the respondent. They employ both closed and open question types. Closed questions offer limited answer choices generating quantitative data. Open questions prompt respondents to express feelings or experiences, yielding qualitative data.
• Positivists favour structured interviews

  Structured interviews involve a researcher asking closed questions from a predetermined list and recording responses in fixed categories. The process is rigid, avoiding deviation or encouragement of responses. Results are often quantified, providing statistics and percentages in reliable formats like tables and graphs. This method ensures a representative sample and is employed by surveys like the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CESW) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS).