Outline and explain two reasons why Positivists generally prefer to use quantitative methods (10)

Last Updated on October 5, 2026 by Karl Thompson

The theory and methods 10 mark question appears as a special treat at the end of Paper 1 (Education, Methods in Context and Theory and Methods). You’ll get one on Paper 3 (Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods) too, followed by a 20 mark theory and methods essay with an item.

This is a practice question in the AQA’s ‘outline and explain’ format. The model answer is my own. The guidance on what earns the marks comes from the AQA’s June 2023 Paper 3 mark scheme and examiner’s report, which set the mirror-image question: why interpretivists prefer qualitative methods.

NB – If you’d like to attempt this question BEFORE looking at the answer below, you can review the topic first: Positivism in Social Research.

The Question (no item!)

Outline and explain two reasons why Positivists generally prefer to use quantitative methods (10 marks)

What the Mark Scheme Rewards

The AQA marks all ‘outline and explain’ 10-markers to the same pattern. To reach the top band (8–10 marks) you need very good knowledge and understanding of two reasons, two applications of relevant material, and appropriate analysis. On the June 2023 paper, the 10 marks split 5 for knowledge and understanding (AO1), 3 for application (AO2) and 2 for analysis (AO3).

For this question, good material to draw on includes:

• the positivist aim of finding general laws or patterns of social behaviour
• comparison and correlation between large groups
• representativeness and generalisability
• reliability: the same method, used again, should give the same results
• objectivity and detachment, keeping the researcher’s values out of the data

Note: there are no marks for evaluation on the 10 mark no item questions (there are for the ‘analyse with the item’ 10 mark questions!) The June 2023 examiner’s report said so directly: students who added evaluation to an ‘outline and explain’ question earned nothing for it.

For 10 mark questions it’s good practice to select two very different reasons, which are as far apart from each other as possible. Use as many theory and methods concepts and examples as you can. But don’t turn the answer into a comparison of positivism and interpretivism. On the mirror-image question in 2023, the examiner’s report noted that students who wrote a comparison of the two approaches didn’t meet the demands of the question. Mentioning what qualitative data can’t do is fine, as part of explaining a reason. A paragraph on what interpretivists believe is not.

A Model Answer

The first reason is that Positivists are interested in looking at society as a whole, in order to find out the general laws which shape human action, and numerical data is really the only way we can easily study and compare large groups within society, or do cross national comparisons – qualitative data by contrast is too in-depth and too difficult to compare.

Numerical data allow us to make comparisons easily as once we have social data reduced down to numbers, it is easy to put into graphs and charts and to make comparisons and find correlations, enabling us to see how one thing affects another.

For example, Durkheim used official statistics to compare suicide rates between different societies and religious groups. He found that Protestants had higher suicide rates than Catholics, and theorised that this was because Protestants were less integrated into their religious community.

The second reason for preferring quantitative methods is that Positivists think it is important to remain detached from the research process, in order to remain objective, or value free.

Quantitative methods allow for a greater level of detachment as the researcher does not have to be directly involved with respondents, meaning that their own personal values are less likely to distort the research process, as might be the case with more qualitative research.

This should be especially true for official statistics, which merely need to be interpreted by researchers, but less true of structured questionnaires, which have to be written by researchers, and may suffer from the imposition problem.

You may need to add in a further layer of development to each of these points!

How This Answer Measures Up Against the Mark Scheme

This is a reading of the model answer against the AQA’s level descriptors for this type of question, not an official mark.

• Two distinct reasons. The first is about the positivist aim of finding laws through comparison. The second is about objectivity and detachment. They don’t overlap.
• Application. The first reason is applied to Durkheim’s study of suicide, which is exactly the sort of ‘relevant material’ the top band asks for.
• Analysis. The second reason does its own analysis: it explains that detachment is stronger with official statistics than with questionnaires, because someone still has to write the questions.
• What’s missing. The second reason has no named study or example. That’s what the note at the end of the answer is warning about.

How to Push It into the Top Band

Add a developed example to the second reason. For instance, a structured questionnaire with pre-coded answers can be repeated by a different researcher on a different sample and checked, which is the positivist case for reliability. Name the method, and say what it lets a researcher do that an unstructured interview can’t.

Use the key terms explicitly. Reliability, representativeness, generalisability, correlation and objectivity are all concepts the examiner is looking for. If the answer uses the idea without the word, it’s leaving marks on the table.

The Same Answer, Different Wording

You might see a similar question asked more broadly:

Outline and explain two reasons why sociologists may choose to use research methods that produce quantitative data (10 marks)

This wording asks about sociologists, not just positivists. So practical reasons count as well as theoretical ones. The answer above would still work, but you could swap one reason for a practical one. For example, quantitative methods such as questionnaires are quick and cheap to administer to large samples, and pre-coded answers can be analysed by computer. For more on practical reasons, see Outline and explain two practical problems which might affect social research.

Is All Quantitative Research Positivist?

No, though it’s easy to think so, because positivists favour quantitative methods and the two are usually taught together. The link runs one way: positivists prefer quantitative data, but not everyone who collects quantitative data is a positivist. Many researchers use surveys simply to measure how common something is. The Crime Survey for England and Wales, for instance, measures how many people have experienced domestic abuse, without claiming to have found a law of society. Interpretivists also use some quantitative data, as background to their qualitative research.

That distinction is worth making in a 20-mark essay. In a 10-marker on this question, keep the focus on why positivists prefer quantitative methods.

KT’s Commentary

[KT DRAFT — REWRITE IN YOUR OWN WORDS BEFORE PUBLISHING]

This is one of the most predictable questions on the specification, which is exactly why you should have a polished answer ready. The trap is the same one the examiners flagged on the interpretivist version in 2023: students know positivism and interpretivism as a pair, so they write about both. Resist it. Two reasons, both about positivists, each with a named concept and an example.

If you’re short of time, the first reason here is the stronger one. Durkheim gives you a ready-made example of the whole positivist approach in two sentences.

Related Posts

• Positivism and Interpretivism in Social Research – the difference between the two approaches
• Positivism in Social Research – the main post on positivism, including Durkheim
• Outline and Explain Two Reasons Why Interpretivists Prefer to Use Qualitative Methods of Research (10) – the mirror-image question, set by the AQA in June 2023
• Factors Affecting Choice of Research Methods – theoretical, practical and ethical factors

Source: AQA (2023) A-level Sociology 7192/3: mark scheme and report on the examination, June 2023. Mark scheme guidance summarised here for educational purposes.

Signposting

This post has been written for students studying theory and methods as part of the AQA’s A-Level Sociology course. For more exam practice, see my page on sociology past papers and exam advice.

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