Positivism

Philosophical positions in sociology

It is important to consider why we call positivism a philosophical position in sociology. This is because philosophical positions are broad, overarching ideas about how humans are, and how they should be studied. They ask fundamental questions.

• What causes human behaviour? Is it their personal motivations or social structures?

• How should humans be studied?

• Can we make generalizations about humans and society?

Positivism is a philosophical position that views people and human behaviour in a specific way. Therefore, to adopt a positivist approach, they should also be studied in a specific way.

Fig. 1 - Philosophical positions in sociology consider how humans should be studied

Positivism vs. Interpretivism

In sociology, positivism advocates applying the scientific method and studying society as governed by a collection of ‘social facts’ or laws (much as the natural laws govern the physical world). People’s behaviour is influenced by external factors such as institutions, social structures, systems – not internal factors such as people’s opinions or motivations. This approach is called macrosociology.

The 'opposing' approach is called interpretivism, which maintains that humans cannot be studied using numbers because behaviours have meanings that cannot be understood using quantitative data. Proponents of interpretivism, therefore, prefer qualitative methods. See Interpretivism for more information.

Theory of positivism in sociology

Positivism was founded by French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857), initially as a philosophical movement. He believed in and founded the science of sociology, which was the study of social phenomena in the same way as people then (and now) studied natural phenomena.

Émile Durkheim's positivism

French sociologist Émile Durkheim was a well-known positivist. Greatly influenced by the ideas of Auguste Comte, Durkheim combined sociological theory with empirical research methodology.

He was the first to establish sociology as an academic discipline in France and became the first sociology professor.

Durkheim's positivism refined Comte's scientific approach to studying society. He argued that through scientific methods, sociologists should be able to, with high accuracy, predict the impacts of changes in society.

Changes in society can include things like a sudden increase in crime and unemployment, or a decrease in marriage rates.

Durkheim believed in using the comparative method in researching society. The comparative method involves looking for correlations, patterns or other relationships between variables in different groups. His famous study of suicide is a good example of the comparative method in sociological research.

Durkheim's Study of Suicide

Durkheim carried out a systematic study of suicide (1897) to find out which social forces or structures affected the suicide rate, as they were particularly high at the time. To complete this, he used the scientific method and studied the common factors among the people who had committed suicide.

In this way, he established the 'social fact' that there was a high suicide rate due to high levels of anomie (chaos). Low levels of social integration caused anomie, according to Durkheim.

Durkheim's study of suicide is an example of how human behaviour can be studied using data, logic, and reasoning.

Characteristics of positivism

Positivist sociologists try to understand society by using scientific methods. Let us look at the characteristics of positivism in more details.

'Social facts'

Social facts are what positivist sociologists seek to uncover using objective research methods. According to Émile Durkheim in The Rules of Sociological Method (1895):

In other words, social facts are things that exist externally to an individual and that constrain the individual.

Social facts include:

• Social values, such as the belief that elderly family members should be respected.

• Social structures, such as the social class structure.

• Social norms, such as the expectation to attend church every Sunday.

• Laws, duties, social activities, subcultures.

Such social facts are external and observable; therefore, they are subject to scientific analysis.

The positivist approach to research methods

Researchers who adopt a positivist approach choose quantitative methods in their research.

This is because positivists believe that the nature of human behaviour and society is objective and can be scientifically measured, and quantitative methods emphasize objective measurements through numbers; i.e. statistical, mathematical, and numerical analysis.

The goal of positivist research is to study patterns and relationships between social factors, which can help researchers make accurate predictions about society and social change. According to positivists, this is best done through quantitative methods.

Quantitative methods allow positivist researchers to collect data from large samples and collate it into data sets, tracing patterns, trends, correlations, and finding cause and effect relationships through statistical analysis.

Some of the most typical primary research methods chosen by positivist sociologists include:

• Laboratory experiments

• Social surveys

• Structured questionnaires

• Polls

Fig. 2 - For positivists, data has to be objectively collected and analyzed

The main aim of positivist research methods is to collect objective and numerical data that can be analysed.

Positive evaluation of positivism in sociology

Let's look at some advantages of positivism in sociology and sociological research.

The positivist approach:

• Understands the impact of social structures and socialization on individuals; behaviour can be understood in the context of the society individuals live in.

• Focuses on objective measurements that can be replicated, which makes them highly reliable.

• Prefers to uncover trends, patterns, and correlations, which can help to identify social issues on a large scale.

• Often uses large samples, so findings can be generalized onto the wider or whole population. This also means findings are highly representative.

• Involves a complete statistical analysis, based on which researchers can make predictions.

• Involves more efficient methods of data collection; surveys and questionnaires can be automated, easily entered into a database and further manipulated.

Criticism of positivism in research

However, there is criticism of positivism in sociology and sociological research. The positivist approach:

• Views humans as too passive. Even if social structures influence behaviour, they are not as predictable as positivists believe.

• Disregards social contexts and human individuality. Interpretivists claim that everyone has a subjective reality.

• Can make it hard to interpret the data without context or reasoning behind social facts.

• Constrains the focus of the research. It is inflexible and cannot change in the middle of the study as it will invalidate the study.

• May present issues of researcher bias in the collection or interpretation of data.