... lacks a sufficiently large sample size and is generally unrepresentative of society. Positivist research as well as the quantitative methods associated with them also limits the extent to which researchers are involved with the research subject, hence reducing the possibility of imposition upon the subjects, or the occurrence of the Hawthorne Effect and self-representation. This makes Positivist Research clearly more valid than other methods and hence makes it useful in regards to the study of society. Positivism also clearly avoids the problems of selective observation which affects the outcome of interpretivist research, as well as the imposition dilemma faced by most interpretivist researchers. Positivist research is also useful as it can be stratified and quantified, as it involved the collection of quantitative data. This is illustrated in Durkheim's study into Suicide, in which through the collection of quantitative data he was able to observe general trends in suicide statistics and ...

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