Interactionism: Interaction with Society

Hello fellow bloggers! I want to give a quick shout out to Ms. Stephanie Adams, if it wasn't for you I would not have remembered we had a blog, so thank you Steph, thank.....YOU. Anyways, this week's topic assesses which sociological approach--interactionism or positivism--can provide better insight into sociological issues. Well, when you think of sociological issues, what exactly is that referring to? Sociological issues could be anything such as crime rates, job opportunity, cultural divide (like hispanics and whites), or education. Positivism takes a more scientific approach towards sociological issues. If a positivist decided to investigate this problem, he/she would collect data quantitatively and probably use a method such as random sampling. Even though this method can give a general idea of the problems that occurring within the community (if questions are directed properly), the researcher is still missing out on vital information a direct confrontation with an individual in the community can provide. Interactionism calls for more interaction (hence the name) with the individuals in society. From that qualitative data can be derived. Qualitative data gives an in-depth of human behavior. So when it comes to sociological issues, a qualitative approach provides answers as to why these sociological issues have arises and the affect is has on the people so a solution may be found. For an issue to be solved, someone has to explain the problem. Interactionism seems to be the best choice towards this principle.