Interpretivism Flashcards
Who are the Interpretivists?
They acknowledge society as a social construct where there’s a net sum of all the social interactions and the interpretations of meanings.
What do the Interpretivists believe?
They believe people are creators of their own destinies as they are conscious beings who act with intention and purpose.
If society is a social construct then people choose to come together and interact in social groups. Those taking part and are aware of the social interaction they make and give it meaning, they share a similar sense of what goes on.
What are verstehen and empathy, and why are they important for Interpretivists?
Interpretivists want to develop an empathetic understanding of the individual studied.
Having verstehen helps them understand social actions in the way the participants do.
What is ethnographic data?
Research involving the understanding of social behaviour and organisations of societies by going out and talking to people.
What are rapports?
Provide unique and trusting relationships established by those studied enabling a true picture of their life to be constructed.
What are endeavors?
They get inside people’s heads to experience the world from their perspective and establishes ‘verstehen’ to understand how the research subject feels about their subject experience about social life
Why do Interpretivists prefer primary research methods such as Unstructured Interviews?
They allow a natural conversational flow.
Why do Interpretivists prefer secondary data (e.g. diaries, autobiography’s and letters)
They show the subject’s interpretation of reality is paramount.
What is paramount?
It’s above others in a ranking of authority.
What are three things Interpretivists are linked with?
Rapport
Subjective experience
Qualitative data.
POSITIVIST CRITIQUE OF INTERPRETIVISTS
They see Interpretivists as unsystematic and unstructured by focusing on naturally occurring behaviour.
They believe you cannot judge whether the social context of the people studied is representative from ethnographic research.
Data is hard to repeat/replicate due to the rapports created which are unique to the researcher and respondents at the time of the research.
Ethnography is a methodological approach which involves too narrow a view of the group/institutions studied.
Qualitative data may be biased based on the results of the researcher’s subjective and selective interpretation.
Interpretivists research requires people to be part of a study and there’s a possibility of the Hawthorne effect.
What is the Hawthorne effect?
The individual(s) studied may behave in a different way based on the researcher’s presence or known presence, thus can affect the validity of the research.
What is reflexivity?
The researcher keeps diaries that can assume the trails they’ve been on.
Self-evaluation involves the researcher reflecting critically on how they organised the research process.
