Positivism And Positivist Two Approaches Of Interpreting Social Reality

Positivism originated with August Comte. It was considered a philosophical approach that replaced speculation with science. Positivist theorists believe

Sociological perspectives give us a variety of explanations about the social behavior and social interactions of human in society. It also helps us understand ourselves better. Without the sociological perspective, humans see the world through their very small groups of family, friends or coworkers. I will be comparing two sociological perspectives, Functionalist Perspective and Conflict Perspective, and how they would assess the role of culture in society.

Auguste Comte coined the term, positive philosophy in the 17th century, as a way that social phenomena can be studied, measured and understood like physical objects by using scientific methods. Comte was concerned with employing the methods and insights of physical science to establish a vital new moral order (Pruss 1996: 5) Therefore, the positivist ontology believes that the world is external and that which cannot be measured does not exist. (McLuhan 2015: 2) Therefore, positivists take an organized

Positivism and constructionism share many differences, but both perspectives have valid arguments, so this theme has become a very popular debate among sociologists. Before a person can claim the distinctions between the two, one must have a clear understanding of each individual theory. The text states, “Each perspective suggests how to define deviance, but reveals through the definition what subject to study, what method to use for the study, and what kind of theory to use to make sense of the subject.” (p.4) I will explore each theory and the differences between positivism and constructionism.

In the interpretivist paradigm, observation is regarded as an invaluable method of data collection because it is a great source of primary data (Yin, 2011). According to DeWalt and DeWalt (2002) participant observation allows the researcher to learn about the activities of the participants being studied in the natural setting through observing and participating in those activities. Moreover, direct observation of activities assists the researcher to learn about aspects that the participants are either unaware of or are unwilling to discuss in interviews (Stake, 2010). DeWalt and DeWalt (2002) also noted that a good observer should have an open and nonjudgmental attitude and be able to observe and listen carefully.

Sociological Theory: Positivistic, Interpretative, and Critical Comment on the three types of sociological theories, explain and argue, based on your library or Internet research, which type of theory is the most appropriate theory for sociology to adopt. The three general types of sociological theory are positivistic, interpretive and critical theory. In determining which theory is the most appropriate for sociology to adopt,a basic understanding of each theory's strengths and weaknesses is necessary. In defining each of these theories, it is important to determine the ontological basis orthe theory's basis for determining what is knowable; the epistemological basis or the theory's relationship between the knower and the knowable; and,

Social constructionism was deemed an appropriate epistemology to use, as it views knowledge as being constructed as opposed to created (Andrews, 2012). That is, a person’s reality is shaped through their experiences and interactions with other people. Social constructionism rejects the notion that reality is objective and external to the mind and that knowledge is based on observed objects and events, and implies that both the object and the subject work together in creating meaning (Guba & Lincoln, 1998). Social constructionism used as an interpretive methodology is suited for this research given its exploratory focus in the ways that phenomena are socially constructed. It provides an emphasis on the multiple perspectives that are gained from individuals that have experienced the lived

She was the first person to translate August Comte’s work from French to English in 1853. August Comte was a French philosopher and is the father of sociology. Auguste Comte lived from 1798 to 1857 and created the idea known as Positive Philosophy or Positivism. (Landow & Everett, 2014) It was called The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. It is probably one of her most intellectual works.

Positivist sociologists would argue that unstructured interviews are a disadvantage for sociologists to use in sociological research because it cannot be quantified. As unstructured interviews are mainly open-ended questions, the answers cannot be pre-coded. This lack of quantitative data makes unstructured interviews less useful for establishing a cause-and-effect relationship and hypothesis testing that positivists prefer. For example, it is impossible to quantify how a woman might feel after experiencing domestic violence, making it difficult to establish a relationship between the actions taken against women and the long term psychological effect. Therefore, unstructured interviews are a disadvantage when used in sociological research. However, interpretivist sociologists may see the

Positivism is a theoretical point of view which concentrates on social facts, scientific methods and quantitative data. The research methods that are commonly used by positivists are questionnaires, structured interviews, structured non-participant observation and official statistics. These methods are used as they are objective and reliable. One sociological study that used positivist methods was Durkheim’s Suicide Study. Durkheim used official statistics to study suicide and demonstrate society as a science with its own distinct subject matter.

Critically Analyse and Evalute The Different Sociological Perspectives On The Types of Family And Households In Britain. Evaluate Their Functions And Roles. To What Extent Do They Take Into Account The Diversity of Family Types In Britain?

Research paradigms are ‘the entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and so on shared by members of a given community’ (Kuhn, 1970, p.175). The three most common paradigms are positivism, constructivism or interpretivism and pragmatism. Each of these can be categorised further by examining their: ontology, epistemology and methodology. Fundamentally, ontology is the nature of reality, epistemology describes the relationship the investigator has with their version of reality, and methodology is the various techniques and tools used to analysis their research.

The social science paradigm also known as Post positivism consists of testing hypothesis and research questions that are developed through reasoning. This is done through measurements and observation. Social scientists aspire to science and they seek to study human behaviour, interaction and thought in an organized way; which we can then measure, generalize and replicate. Like any research, post-positivism needs to be backed up by evidence. When a social science research sets out a research project, it is their goal to find evidence that can either agree or disagree with the hypothesis or theories. Post positivism, compared to positivism allows more interaction with the participants of the research project and seeks to highlight the relationship between universal properties between the variables. The best way to understand post positivism is by comparing it to positivism and the interpretive paradigm. Compared to positivism, post positivism is more tolerant for value-based information, however is not focused on qualitative information like the interpretive paradigm, instead the research is mainly focused on quantitative data.

August Comte was a French philosopher (1798-1857) that work is based on positivism. This paradigm was popular in 20th century. It focused on that knowledge should be limited that cab be observed and measured. Positivist directly emphasized on those theory that can be tested. Positivist cannot measure the feelings, emotions and thoughts of humans. Positivist is purely based on empirical nature that may led to develop the post-positivism in the late 20th century. Post positivist argues that the combination of empirical observation with logical reasoning make some implications about a phenomenon (Thomas,

Without knowing it, social order is very important in everyday life. As Elizabeth Silva says ‘social order is a key principle of living together’ (Reflections on Ordered Lives, 2009, Audio). The ordering of social life can be looked at in many ways. However, two theories stand out when looking at the making of social order, that of Erving Goffman and Michel Foucault. Both of these theories are concerned with how society is produced and, more specifically, how social order is made and remade. While the two theories aim to understand a broad picture of understanding society, they do so in very different ways. They both split the big questions down into smaller ones, Goffman looks at how an individual creates order, and Foucault looks at how