macro & micro

• macro approaches

  Structural theories often have a macro perspective as they look at large scale trends. Structural theories are interested in large scale social processes, this could be social stability or changes in society overtime. They look from the top down. For example, a structural theorist may be interested in how the education system has impacted people's job opportunities.
• micro approaches

  Action theories often have a micro perspective as they focus on smaller interactions and areas of society. Action theorists are interested in how groups look from the bottom up. For example, an action theorist may be interested in hwo young people act differently in a classroom compared to how they would act at home. 
• macro v micro

  • The macro perspective is more interested in research that involves a lot of people. This means they are likely to use methods such as questionnaires, structured interviews or official statistics. 
  • The micro perspective is more interested in research that involves a small number of people. This means they are likely to use methods such as unstructured interviews or observations. This means micro perspectives are more likelhy to collect qualitative data.
• structural theories

  Structural theories have a deterministic view to free will. This means they believe humans have little free will and that society has a large influence over our decisions.

  Structural theories take a macro perspective. This means they are interested in large scale society. They often investigate social stability and changes in society.

  Structural theories use research methods that collect quantitative data. This is numerical data which contains a lot of data. These methods include surveys, structured interviews and official statistics. 
• action theories

  Action theories believe humans have a lot of free will. This means they believe humans are able to make their own choices and can influence society around them. 

  Action theories take a micro perspective. This means they are interested in small scale social intteractions between people. This could be conversations or small group interactions. 

  Action theories use research methods that collect qualitative data. This is non numerical data that includes long excerpts of text. These methods include observations and unstructured interviews.