Describe, Compare, Contrast, and Critically Evaluate the Effectiveness of Both Positivist and Phenomenological Methodology Adopted When Studying Society.

Sociology is the study of human society, including both social action and organisation. Sociologists use scientific research methods and theories, and study social life in a wide variety of settings, this offers not only information but also a distinctive way of looking at the world and the position humans play in it. Whereas most people try to explain events by analyzing the motives of those involved, sociologists encourage a look beyond individual psychology to many recurring attitudes, actions and how these patterns vary across time, cultures and social groups. To look at the different ways people act and behave in society, it has to be seen from a sociological perspective. Within sociology there is no single method, but many. As stated by Haralambos and Holborn (1995) science appeared to be capable of producing objective knowledge that could be used to solve human problems and increase human productive capacity in an unprecedented way. This assignment will look at the two main methodologies, used by sociologists, past and present, and compare the effectiveness of the two.

When the task of comparing and contrasting the two methodologies of positivism and phenomenology, adopted within the study of society, there are many things that leap to mind: Firstly, there is the factor of time or circa and secondly is the influence of certain acclaimed sociologists within the two different approaches. Methodology within sociology is the study of methods and deals with the philosophical assumptions underlying the research process, using scientific quantitative data collection under those philosophical assumptions. The broad methodology positions, positivism and phenomenology differ hugely. Positivism contains the underlying philosophical assumptions of research in the most pure and applied sciences, physics, chemistry and biology, based on ideas of the objective reality of the physical world, scientific method and empiricism. Just as positivism arose out of rejecting