However, critics of positivism believe that social scientists deal with complex phenomena and study contexts that are characterized by multiplicity of meanings. Complex social reality is not amenable to quantitative approach. One major criticism of the traditional statistical approach in social sciences is that it emphasizes objectivity at the cost of tampering with reality. This lends support to qualitative methodology and qualitative methods.

QUALITATIVE METHODS

Social scientists have produced a variety of qualitative methods. They include biographic theory, phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography and case studies. Qualitative methods are particularly useful when the purpose is to explore new problems, when it is important to understand the people's perspectives, when one is dealing with unstructured issues, or when standard measurements will be misleading. In population research one often confronts the additional problem of collecting reliable data which is of intimate and confidential nature (such as multipartner sex). Qualitative methods can help a lot in the initial phases and often produce useful results to design quantitative studies. In general, qualitative methods have been used in the following types of studies:

• Subjective meaning in reproductive decisions – religious and traditional rationality

• Why do some couples who do not want additional child, not use contraceptive methods either (studies of unmet needs )?

• Community norms including gender norms regarding sexual behaviour and drug use

• Live experiences of women kidnapped or tricked into being trafficked (Kristof and WuDunn, 2009)

• Social and cultural dimensions of diseases

• Community responses to various risks including risk of HIV

• Sexual and drug use networks

• Subjective understanding of needle exchange among drug users

• Phenomenological understanding of unsafe practices