The positivist researchers consider reality as

Positivism treats social reality as objective, external, and existing independently of the observer's mind.

Subjective reality belongs to interpretivism, where meaning is constructed by social actors.

Neutral describes an attitude to values, not the ontological nature of reality itself.

Insignificant contradicts the positivist claim that reality is real, measurable, and law-governed.

Positivists study this reality through empirical observation, quantification, and the search for causal laws.

Auguste Comte coined positivism, holding that society can be studied like the natural sciences.