Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Philosophical Foundations

The Three Approaches

Positivist Social Science

Interpretive Social Science

Critical Social Science

Feminist and Postmodern Research

Conclusion

The Meanings of Methodology

The confusion in the social sciences—it should now be obvious—is wrapped up with

the long-continuing controversy about the nature of Science.

—C. Wright Mills,The Sociological Imagination,p. 119

Many people ask whether the social sciences are
realscience. They think only of the natural sciences
(e.g., physics, chemistry, and biology). The mean-
ing of sciencesignificantly shapes how we do social
scientific research. We can define science in two
ways: (1) what practicing scientists actually do and
how the institutions of science operate and (2) what
philosophers have dissected as the core meaning of
twenty-first-century science. One thing is clear. The
many studies in the sociology and philosophy of sci-
ence tell us that the practice and meaning of social
science are more nuanced and complex than what
most people think. As Collins (1989:134) remarked,
“Modern philosophy of science does not destroy so-
ciological science; it does not say that science is
impossible, but gives us a more flexible picture of
what science is.”
The question regarding what makes social sci-
ence scientifichas a long history of debate and is
relevant for learning about social research. It bridges
across the various social sciences and considers
whether a disjuncture or unity exists between natu-
ral and human sciences. Philosophers and great
social theorists such as Auguste Comte, Émile
Durkheim, David Hume, Karl Marx, John Stuart
Mill, and Max Weber have pondered this question.
Despite more than two centuries of discussion and

debate, the question is still with us today. Obviously,

it does not have one simple answer.

The question does not have one answer because

there is no one way to do science; rather, there are

multiple sciences, or several alternative approaches.

“Approaches is a general term, wider than theory or

methodology. It includes epistemology or questions

about the theory of knowledge, the purposes of re-

search, whether understanding, explanation, or nor-

mative evaluation.. .” (Della Porta and Keating,

2008:1). Each approach to social science rests on

philosophical assumptions and has a stance on what

constitutes the best research. The approaches are

found in social science fields across nations, al-

though as Abend (2006) has argued, very different

approaches to social research may predominate in

different nations. More specifically, the prevailing

approach found in the United States may not be

widely accepted or used among social scientists

elsewhere.

You may find the pluralism of approaches con-

fusing at first, but once you learn them, you will find

that other aspects of research and theory become

clearer. Specific research techniques (e.g., experi-

ments and participant observation) make more sense

if you are aware of the logic and assumptions on

which they rest. In addition, the approaches will help