Three approaches to sociological research

Durkheim predicts that suicide rates will be higher among groups with less social integration. Examining past records, he determines that suicide rates are higher in men, those who are single, those without children.

• Positivism

• Interpretative

• Critical

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry. The Afterword advocates that with swift, decisive and effective action, many of the problems documented in the book are solvable

• Positivism

• Interpretative

• Critical

In Savage Inequalities: Children in America's schools, Kozol shares insight gleaned from observing public school classrooms in cities like NYC, Camden, Washington D.C. & St. Louis.

• Positivism

• Intrepretative

• Critical

Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By In America" is based on her ethnographic research on low-wage jobs in which she immersed herself ​in the world of low-wage earning Americans to give readers a better understanding of the realities regarding the day-to-day subsistence of working-class wage earners and their families living at or below the poverty line.

• Positivism

• Interpretative

• Critical

The Culture of Fear study demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. The study exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears and spells out the prices we pay for social panics. It challenges us to use that knowledge and instead focus on actual threats like climate change and worsening inequality.

• Positivism

• Intrepretative

• Critical

The Asch Conformity study expected subjects to conform to group pressure and select the wrong answer when asked to compare lines and choose the two that were the same. His prediction was supported by the data collected.

• Positivism

• Intrepretative

• Critical