Essay Positivists

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

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

After having read the first three chapters of “You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like A Sociologist,” I easily discovered that I have been a budding sociologist since I began forming my own thoughts. A sociologist questions everything and tries to relate the unknown, and I do that on a daily basis. Three specific ways in which I have noticed myself thinking like a sociologist have involved the Conflict Theory, the Reflection Theory, and the idea of “positivism.”

A sociologist should be able to observe and understand the realities of human behavior and the social settings in which it happens without being influenced emotionally or personally.

Whereas the interpretive perspective prefer qualitative data and seek to understand social actors (those who exercise free will) meanings, they reject the view that sociology is a science.

16). Interactionists observe at the micro scale as opposed to the functionalist and conflict views; this makes it easier to understand or learn the other perspectives macro interpretation (Schaefer, 2015). Using symbolic interactionism (human beings are viewed as living in a world of meaningful objects), nonverbal communication, or face-to-face interaction individuals are able to shape their own social domain (Schaefer, 2015). Interactionists describe social order through the imitation of communication with others and the everyday social behavior amongst one another (Schaefer, 2015). Social change is reflected upon by a persons social position or how communicate is changed (Schaefer, 2015). A good example of symbolic interactionism is the reality TV show Jersey Shore. The two male friends Pauly D and Vinny have special bond between each other known bromance, which is a non-sexual and non-gay relationship between two people of the same sex. Thus showing on TV to others that it is ok to show affection towards your best friend of the same sex and not be branded as gay. Ultimately, the audiences who are watching this begin altering their own principles and using it as a relation in their own lives based off of what they have seen on this

Authors Boris Blumberg, Donald Cooper, Pamela Schindler say, Interpretivist argue that simple fundamental laws are insufficient to understand the whole complexity of social phenomena. More important, however they claim that an objective observation of the social world is impossible, as the social world has a meaning for human beings and is constructed by intentional behaviour and actions. Intentional interpretivism approaches meaning as intentional states of individual minds, to be understood by locating them within the broader network of an individual’s other intentional states and in a concrete context of social practices and interactions with others.

The interpretive view also believes that theses meanings that persuade human behaviour is created through specific interactions

However, Interpretivist (anti-positivist) sociologists are sceptical about sociology’s scientific status. They argue that human behaviour is not the result of

p. Interactionist Theory: believe that society is bottom up rather than the top down; they focus on the social interactions among people that are based on the reality people choose to accept (you interact with friends because they interact with sport)

Understanding the differences and similarities of interpretive and objective theory approaches is key to further expand one’s knowledge of communication studies. Author of A First Look at Communication Theory Em Griffin, describes interpretive theories as “the linguistic work of assigning meaning or value to communicative texts; assumes that multiple meanings or truths are possible” (Griffin, p.15). He also defines objective theory as “the assumption that truth is singular and is accessible through unbiased sensory observation; committed to uncovering cause-and-effect

In this paper I will be addressing and discussing the two schools of criminology, which respectively are the classical school and the positivist school. I will begin by comparing and contrasting the historical background of both schools using the founders of each school. I will then continue the paper by comparing their assumptions, their findings and their key policy implications. I will do this by explaining each school’s purpose and goal. I will then argue and explain how the classical school is respectively stronger than the positivist school for being straight forward, concise and unbiased.

• The quantitative procedures utilize excessively couple of variations and offers a mediocre approach, hence contextual considering of subject is absent. Henceforth, they tend to be less suited for sociology contrasted with objective learnings (Barr, 2004).

One advantage of using interpretivist methods of research is that the responses are valid and close to the truth. With the individual mattering they give a good reflection of how people are truly feeling often providing an accurate picture and measuring what the researcher set out to measure.

Positivism is the scientific paradigm, which is the representative of objectivity. This paradigm supports that knowledge comes through a series of steps, such as observation of the nature, forming a hypothesis and then testing the hypothesis through experiments and statistics. In this way, researchers can provide a more accurate view of the truth and prevent generalization. No personal experiences and subjective opinions are involved. In most of the cases, positivism is based on a quantitative research method, which means that the results of the research are verified by numbers and not