Interpretivism

• Verstehen

  Researchers need to develop empathy with subjects
• Key ideas

  • Society is constructed of individuals who have free will
  • Micro theories = look at individual action influencing society
  • Subjective and qualitative data
  • Individuals are different with their interpretations, can't be studied scientifically, subjective
• Primary methods

  • Covert and overt participant observation
  • Unstructured interviews
  • Field experiments
• Strengths

  • Valid = uncover meanings of people's actions
  • Qualitative data = hidden meanings
  • Gain insight into hard-to-reach groups
• Limitations

  • Lack reliability = difficult to replicate methods
  • Lacks objectivity = can be overly influenced by researcher's interpretations of actions
  • Small scale = lacks representativeness
• Secondary methods

  • Personal documents
  • Public documents
  • Historical data