Disadvantages,Advantages and Assumptions of the Positivist and Interpretivist Sociological Perspectives.

Subject  > Social Science Essays  > Sociology

"Positivists view the use of scientific methods of research as desirable or preferable and are critical sociologists that use subjective or unobservable mental states." The positivist methodology came from the early sociologist, Auguste Comte. He maintained that the application of the methods and assumptions of the natural sciences of the "positive sciences" of society. From this rational came the tenants of positivism or the positivist perspective. Some characteristics of this type of methodology are:- ·The evolution of society followed a set of laws. These laws were governed by principles of cause and effect. ·Human behaviour, like the behaviour of matter can be objectively measured. ·The behaviour that is observed can therefore, be analyzed and examined in order to create theories. Positivists also prefer "correlation" as ...

... interpretation and therefore cannot be objectively analyzed. The main disadvantage of the positivist method of research is the fact that subjects being objectively studied may not be acting as they usually do. Hence, the researcher may collect wrong information. However, this can be an advantage because if the person being studied doesn't know he/she is being looked at, the researcher can collect and provide very important and reliable data. Another advantage is the fact that a wider range of data is available to the researcher. The interpretive method can be a disadvantage however because the sampling size is smaller. A very small sample can sometimes be very unreliable because it is only a very small portion of

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