2. APPROACHES TO SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH.

a) The positivist approach, with reference to scientific method: objectivity and reliability. Positivist
approach.

- according to this approach, it is both possible and desirable to study social behaviour using
similar methods to those used when studying natural world.

- the basic principle is that social systems are made up of structures that exist independently of
individuals.

- institutions represent behaviour at the macro (very large group) level of society. As individuals
we experience social structures as forces bearing down on us, pushing us to behave in certain ways and
shaping our behavioural choices.

NB: although we have a measure of choice in our daily lives, this is limited by social structures.

- for positivists, where social action is determined by structural forces, it makes sense to study the
causes of behavior. This means looking at the structural forces that make people choose one action over
another, rather than studying their effects - the choices themselves.

- social structures are seen as real, objective forces. People cannot stop these forces from acting
on them.

- Durkheim described structural forces in terms of the collective conscience.

Key terms.

Collective conscience: the expression of a society's collective will, which bears down on individuals,
shaping their beliefs and behavioural choices.

- just as natural scientists have observed the effects of unseen forces such as gravity or electro-
magnetism, social structures are unseen forces whose effect can be observed using similar techniques to
those of the natural sciences:

• systematic observation.

• rigorous testing.

• quantitative measurements that create reliable knowledge. NB: More specifically, knowledge is
created by:

• observing social behaviour.

• developing and testing hypotheses.

• analysing and evaluating evidence.

- this systematic process culminates in the development of theories that explain the intitial
observations and predict future behaviuors.
Test yourself:

Identify two methods used in sociological research that positivists would favour.

- since this version of science is concerned with what is, rather than how we might want
something to be, scientists must be personally objective.

- they do not bias or influence the data-collection process. Quantitative methods are favoured
because they allow for the collection of objective and reliable data.

- Questionnaires, structured interviews, experiments or comparative and observational studies

offer higher levels of reliability than qualitative methods.

- they also allow the researcher to maintain a high level of personal objectivity by standing apart
from the behaviour being researched.

- research methods, therefore, should not depend on the subjective interpretations of a

researcher, and research should be capable of exact replication.

Objectivity.

- one of the things that distinguish sociological knowledge from journalism or common sense
(what everyone knows) is the ability to make objective statements about behaviour; facts are
methodologically superior to opinions.

- the researcher not only has no personal stake in the truth or falsity of the behaviour they are
testing or describing, they also try to avoid unduly influencing that behaviour.

- a researcher must try to maintain an objective detachment.

- personal objectivity has a number of dimensions, from trying to objectively observe and record
at one extreme to not deliberately falsifying data at the other.

- personal objectivity is something all sociologists - positivist, Interpretivists and realist - must
actively try to achieve.

- although we must, therefore, assume that all sociologists are objective, there are still theoretical
arguments about the nature of objective social research.

- positivism and interpretivism, for example, have different interpretations of research

objectivity.

- positivists argue that we can study objective features of the social world (institutions such as
families or educational systems) because they are solid and permanent.

- sociological research, therefore, involves discovery - the ability to progressively uncover the
principles on which the social world is based.

- discovery is achieved by the researcher distancing themselves from the behaviour being studied.
- their personal values and beliefs should not influence what they see, they must study the social
world as a detached observer.

Reliability.

- it refers to how effective a research approach is, at collecting consistent data.

- this is related to whether a research can check the accuracy of their data by repeating or
replicating the research.

- if they get two different answers, the research approach is unreliable and any conclusions drawn
from it will be limited.

- Reliability can be improved by standardizing the research approach, as this allows less scope for
differences to occur in the way that different researchers ask questions and collect data.

- if a standardized approach is used to collect information from people have the same or similar
characteristics, the same study results should be achieved each time.

Key term.

Reliability: this generally refers to the effectiveness of the research approach in generating consistent
data. A researcher can check the reliability of their research by repeating (replicating) the research to
see if they get the same, or very similar, results.

- it is easier to achieve a standardized approach using quantitative research methods, such as

questionnaires and structured interviews.

- for this reason, quantitative methods are often regarded as reliable.

- however, research based on a quantitative approach is not automatically high in reliability.

There may be weaknesses in the way that the research was designed and or carried out that make
replication difficult.

- moreover, when replicating a study, it may be difficult to ensure that the subjects have the
same characteristics as the original group.

NB: reliability is an important methodological consideration - obviously, it is preferable for research to

be reliable rather than unreliable.

- however, questions of reliability are not always straightforward. Knight for example, suggests
that the quest for high reliability in sociological research comes at a cost: 'reliability pushes us towards
simplicity and certainty' - two conditions that may be incompatible in social research.

In summary, positivist methodology involves these key ideas:

• the primary research goal is to explain, not to describe, social phenomena.

• scientific research involves the ability to discover the general rules (or structures) that
determine individual behaviour.
• the social scientist must personally be objective - their research must not be influenced by their
values, beliefs, opinions and prejudices - and systemically objective, that is, they should use objective
methods.

• scientific research involves the ability to quantify and measure behaviour.

Evidence

Durkheim was a functionalist and a positivist, he believed social structures act as a force that influence
human behavior. In his study of suicide he used quantitative methods and came up with official suicide
statistics. Durkheim considered factors including country, marital status, religion, and education level to
explain variations in suicide rates. Durkheim found that Protestants, who tended to be more highly
educated, had a higher rate of suicide than Catholics, who tended to have lower levels of education.

-the collection of facts were separated from the values and beliefs of the researcher thus maintaining
objectivity and reliability.

b) Interpretivism approach, with reference to verstehen, meaning, subjectivity and validity.

- for Interpretivists, the crucial difference between society and physical nature is that social
reality is formed through the interaction of people who have consciousness.

- this awareness of ourselves and our relationship to others gives us the ability to act.

- people are able to exercise free will over the choices they make about how to behave in
different situations, rather than simply how to behave in different situations, rather than simply react to
outside (structural) stimulation.

Key terms.

Free will: the argument that because humans have consciousness they can make free and informed
choices about their actions.

- in this sense, people are unpredictable, they do not always react in the same way.

- this means that behaviour cannot be studied and explained in the way natural scientists study
and explain the non-human world.

- for Interpretivists, unpredictability is constructed through meanings.

Society does not exist in an objective form, it is experienced subjectively because we give it meaning
through behaviour.

- in other words, people create and re-create a sense of the social system on a daily basis.

- society is not something out there to be objectively observed but something in here to be
experienced and understood.

- society is created through everyday behavior and the interactions between individuals in social
settings.
-the construction and reconstruction of social reality is based on both the choices people make and the
choices others make for them. If one were caught stealing from a shop, then others in the criminal
justice system will make choices about your future behaviour. They may restrict your freedom of action
by sending you to prison.

- choices are not, therefore, made in a cultural vacuum, they are influenced by cultural contexts
that shape behaviour. How we interpret a situation restricts our range of behavioural choices.

- in addition, we assess how other people might react to our choices and modify our behaviour
accordingly. If you do not want to be arrested then you may decide not to steal.

- an awareness of our choices, and the fact that we understand the consequences of our actions,
helps to explain why societies are generally ordered and stable.

- we consciously limit our behavioural choices to make them broadly predictable and
understandable to others.

For this reason, facts about behaviour can be established, but they always depend on context - they will
not apply to all people, at all times, in all situations.

- the fact that people actively create the social world makes it impossible to establish causal
relationships either in theory or in practice.

- if behaviour is conditioned by how people personally interpret their world (and no two
interpretations can ever be exactly the same), it follows that simple causal relationships cannot be
empirically established.

- there are too many possible variables involved. Where social contexts define the meaning of

behaviour, the best a researcher can do is to describe reality from the viewpoint of those who define it,
whether they are in a classroom, a family or a mental institution.

- if researching social behaviour involves understanding how people individually and collectively
experience and interpret their situation, research methods must reflect this social construction of
reality.

- the aim of Interpretivist research, therefore, is what Laing calls the recovery of subjective
meaning.

- the role of the researcher is to help respondents tell thier story and by so doing, understand and
explain their behavioural choices.

Subjectivity.

- Interpretivists take a different view of objectivity.

- where positivism sees a single reality that can be discovered through systematic research,
interpretivism argues that there are many realities, expressed through the various ways in which people
see and understand the social world.
- this world is not something out there waiting to be discovered. It exists only as interpretations
people make (how they understand behaviour).

- it follows therefore, that the aim of social research is subjective understanding.

NB: although Interpretivists believe that values can never be entirely removed, a researcher should still
strive for personal objectivity.

- sociological research is more value-laden than natural scientific research, but this does not
automatically make it unreliable and invalid, for two reasons:

• pure objectivity is an ideal that can never be attained because all research, social and natural
scientific, involves some degree of value commitment.

• if sociologists recognise how values impact their work, by identifying the assumptions under
which they are working, this research is less value-laden, more reliable and valid than the opinions of
the non-sociologists.

Validity.

- Interpretivists strive for validity.

- there are two basic types of validity:

• construct validity refers to the idea that methods and data are only useful if they actually
measure or describe what they claim to be measuring or describing. Unemployment statics, for
example, may or may not have a high level of construct validity, depending on what they claim to

Measure.

• Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research methods reflect the world being
studied - the idea that closer we get to studying people in their natural environment, the more likely we
are to get valid data. Questionnaires have low ecological validity because this type of research may be
unusual and strange for most respondents. Covert participant observation, on the hand, has much
higher validity.

Verstenhen

- According to Max Weber, seeing the social world through the eyes of others is verstenhen.

- The aim of the interpretivist reasearcher is to help respondents tell their own story and by so
doing understand and explain their behavioural choices.

- Hence, social action is difficult to be measured and quantified since individuals possesses their
own meanings.

Meanings

- People ascribe different meanings to different situations and context.

- Understanding the actor’s meanings in a social action is important.

- The fact that people actively create the social world through interaction and ascribing meanings
to different actions makes it difficult to establish causal relationship either in theory or practice.

Key term.

Validity: the extent to which a research method measures what it claims to measure.

Test yourself.

Suggest two reasons why interviews might lack ecological validity.

- validity is a useful concept because it reminds us to consider the accuracy of different data types
(primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative).

- however, it is difficult to generalise about the validity of different data types and research
methods for two reasons:

• there is a wide range of validity tests that can be applied in different ways. Official statistics may
have construct validity - there is little reason to doubt the validity of UK marriage and divorce statistics -
but it may lack ecological validity, official crime statistics do not really measure crime, but rather a
subset of criminal activity, those crimes that are reported to official agencies.

• Taylor argues that qualitative research is not automatically valid: Qualitative sociologists are
quite convinced methods such as participant observation and in-depth interviews provide the true story
of people's experiences. But the psychology of perception and the work of Elizabeth Loftus on memory
suggests "telling it like it is" may not be quite that simple. In other words, seeing for yourself is not
always as valid as Interpretivists believe. Researchers may simply see the things they want or expect to
see.

- Bryman suggests that this problem can be limited by respondents validation. The subjects of the
research are used to check the validity of the researcher’s observations and interpretations.

- this can improve the credibility of a study, but it is not without its problems.

- Emerson and Poller, for example, suggest these issues include respondents:

• failing to fully read or understand the research.

• being unwilling to criticise the research because of their friendship with the researcher.

• fearing possible wider consequences of agreeing or disagreeing with the research. Interpretivist
methodology can be summarised as follows:

• the primary aim is to describe social behaviour in terms of the meanings and interpretations of
those involved.

• behavioural rules are context bound, they shift and change in subtle ways depending on the
situation.
• uncovering and describing behavioural rules involves the close study of people's behavior, the
researcher must gain a good understanding of the context within which such rules are created. This is
why researchers in this methodology often use participant observation.

• if, as Humphries argues, participation is desirable because the researcher gets a deeper insight
into behaviour, the kind of objective detachment valued by positivists is explicitly rejected.

• while reliability is important, Interpretivists place greater emphasis on achieving validity.