Robert merton called for a style of sociology that avoids extremes: it focuses on institutions, not tiny groups or whole societies, and it holds theory and empirical observation in balance. this type of study is called theory.

This type of study is called Midrange theory.

Midrange theory is aimed to answer specific phenomanons on smaller cale within a social group rather than aiming it to large societal scale.
Currently, this type of theory is the most dominant approach in sociological research because trying to analyze a large-scale phenomenon is very hard due to the amount of factors involved.