Though this is often difficult as social facts tend to be unnoticeable therefore sociologists must avoid being bias when developing their theories and concepts. Positivist Popper suggested in his theory of falsification that in order for something to be regarded as a valid science it must try to disprove their hypothesis. He believed that science can never have absolute truth, but the longer it can go without being falsified the truer it is. He rejects
“Examine the reasons why some sociologists choose to use structured interviews when conducting research” Structured interviews are like questionnaires, as they both involve asking participants a standardised set of questions which are usually closed ended questions with pre-coded answers. However within a structured interview the questions are read out loud to the ‘interviewee’ and the answers given are filled in by the researcher. Structured interviews give quantitative data as the questions have pre-determined answers. This makes them very reliable. This means that structured interviews will appeal to positivists as they like sociological methods which gain reliability, gain quantitative date and can cope with a large sample size.
Quantitative research allows assessing and analyzing data. The association between an independent and dependent variable is studied in detail. Quantitative research can be used to test hypotheses in trials since it is effective in measuring data gathered from the statistics. The main disadvantage of quantitative research is that a large sample of the population must be studied; the larger the sample of people researched, the more statistically accurate the results will be. However,
Qualitative and Quantitative research methods are used to create research reports. They are two different ways of collecting data, so the reports can be prepared efficiently and effectively. They both have their own ways of collecting data and information, and they both have advantages and disadvantages Many people are not aware of the two types of research, Qualitative and Quantitative; they are both very important if you want to write a proper report. The purpose of this report is to compare the two methods of research. The report will discuss the differences between the two types of research and also the advantages and disadvantages of each.
The term quantitative refers to data that is measured or identified on a numerical scale. It is preferred by Positivists such as Durkheim as they like scientific data that is representative and reliable. On the other hand qualitative data is ‘rich’ data that explores the meanings and motives of different human behaviours. Qualitative data is preferred by Interpretivists such as Douglas as they want to gain validity and verstehen. Suicide can be operationalised in different ways, and it is argued that the different ways that it is operationalised results in what therefore is learnt about suicide.
Other alternatives to laboratory experiments are field experiment and the comparative method. Assuming it is possible to create a controlled environment for sociological experiments; there are still many practical issues with experimental methods; firstly there is no possible way for experiments to research past social trends which reduces the range of information available to a sociologist. Secondly, if a laboratory environment has been created for sociology, this could only be used to study limited sample and therefore would not create very reliable data. Finally it is argued that the artificial environment of and experiment would provoke the ‘Hawthorne Effect (Elton Mayo) ‘because if people know they are being studied, they will behave differently e.g. by trying to second guess what the researcher wants them to do and acting accordingly, which would not give very valid data.
He decided that not taking any action is the best action. While source one and source two feel like they have a collective responsibility to the world, source two believes that if he does nothing to harm the world he does not need to do anything to help make it better. Source two also leads on source three’s statement that cannot find the correct explanation and theory as to why the world is the way it is. Source two believes the world is a mess because of what people DO to it and does not think that maybe it is a mess because of the people that DON’T do anything. Therefor he is only just acting on his theory and doing nothing, whilst source three would argue that maybe he should go back a look at the situation again and look for a different theory as to why the world is the way it is and act on the new theory.
So something besides the fact that these people do not have health care, makes it morally right for them to receive it. And that would be up to Kant to decide. Kant is not the type of philosopher that would be in favor of this because he uses rational principles to think and make his final decisions on things. Which essentially means that an action follows a logical principle; Is it logical or not?. In this case with healthcare, based on what Kant is about and the way he goes about ethics, I do not see him being in favor of this act of giving healthcare to all citizens of the United States.
Positivists are of the opinion that society can be studied using a scientific approach comparable to the way scientists study the natural world. The early sociologists such as Comte were of this opinion and Durkheim’s famous study ‘Le Suicide’ demonstrated many aspect of this positivist approach. On the other hand an interpretist will take a more humanist approach and are of the opinion that is in fact the individuals free will that shapes societythis social action is in stark contrast to the social systems approach. This is a viewpoint whereby the individual
Assess usefulness of quantitative and qualitative sources of data in studying suicide The term quantitative refers to data that is measured on a numerical scale. It is preferred by sociologists such as Durkheim as they like scientific data that is representative and reliable. Qualitative data explores the meanings and motives of different human behaviors. Qualitative data is preferred by interpretivists like Durkheim because they wanted to gain validity and verstehen. Suicide can be operationalised in different ways.