Interpretivism

• Interpretivists

  Don't believe Sociology can adopt methods of natural science > not suitable for studying humans

  • focuses on internal meanings
  • not a science = deals with laws of cause and effects not meanings
• Interpretivists - subject matter

  Natural science studies matter has no consciousness > behaviour of matter is automatic response to external stimulus > matter can't choose how to act

  • people attach meanings > meanings are attached to consciousness
  • people are not puppets manipulated by external social facts > decision making begins with who constructs their social world through the meanings they attach to it
• Interpretivist methods


  Want to uncover meanings > need to see the world from their viewpoint using verstehen = empathetic understanding to grasp their meaning

  • explains preference to use quantitative methods which can give sociologists a subjective understanding of the person’s life
• Feminists


  Critical of adopting scientific approach > science seen as 'malestream' as it's based on male understandings and perceptions