Sociological research methods

a) What is meant by the terms positivism and anti-positivism? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each position? Positivism looks at things scientifically. Positivists believe that society can be studied like the natural world using scientific quantitative methods. Positivism research is based mainly on statistics. A great believer of the positivist approach was Emiele Durkhiem (1858-1917). Durkhiem conducted a study on 'suicide' using quantitative data. He obtained this data from coroner's reports, Durkhiem then …

…difficult to generalize. There are ethical issues surrounding participant observation because if people don't realise that they are being observed isn't that an invasion of their privacy! , But if the research had been explained to the group being studied wouldn't they just of behaved differently. Bibliography: Paul Taylor ET Al, 1998, SOCIOLOGY IN FOCUS, causeway press ltd: Lancashire. Pages : Class notes Website references: www.suite101.com www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/pauline/mborm/0/s1d019.htm