Lesson 2- Interpretivism

Question 1

Qualitative data

Answer 1

• Interviews
• Surveys open-ended questions
• Focus groups

Question 2

What do Interpretivists say about positivists/ positivism?

Answer 2

• Inadequate for collecting, analysing and explaining data. Instead, qualitative data should be collected, since it is rich, detailed and high in verstehen. Facts and figures may not be included but a descriptive account of data is better in terms of social action.

Question 3

The Interpretivist Approach-

Answer 3

• Advocate the use of qualitative data collection and state that sociology is about the interpretation of social action, which includes the interpretation of meanings and motives. Using quantitative data often means it is very difficult to interpret meanings and motives, but qualitative data on the other hand is rich and detailed
• Interpretivists are able to gain a rapport with the people being researched as this will increase validity. Sociologists should try to, “walk in the participants shoes”, to gain a good empathetic understanding, aka verstehen.
• Reflexivity- when a researcher stands back from research and considers the data collected from his/ her own perspective. Reflexivity allows both the process of examining oneself as a researcher and the research- participant relationship. Reflexivity involving reflecting on the researcher-participant relationship and how the relationship dynamics affects the participants responses to questions.
• Qualitative data also allows for participant observation, unstructured interviews and personal documents. These methods collect data in the form of words and can give insight into meanings people attach to their own actions, they allow people to think for themselves and allow the researcher to conduct the research without disturbing the participants day to day life too much.
• DEEPER MEANING AND UNDERSTANDING
  -VERSTEHEN
• RAPPORT
• REFLEXIVITY
• PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
• UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
• PERSONAL DOCUMENTS
• CONSCIOUS THOUGHTS AND DISPLAY MEANINGFUL BEHAVIOURS

Question 4

Evaluation of Interpretivist Approach-

Answer 4

1) Positivists would criticise Interpretivists since it could be seen as too biased and not focused on the scientific approach which is not swayed/ infulenced by opinions.

2) Schofield says that Interpretivist research usually focusses on small samples and this can be problematic since it is not representative of the total population.

3) Qualitative data collection tends to be unreliable, if the research is repeated often you are unlikely to get the same results since all the thoughts, feelings and holistic view of the participants can’t be reciprocated.

4) Interpretivist methods tend to produce data that is high in validity since there is a high level of verstehen and rapport between the participant and researcher, which essentially means the researcher is meeting what he/she set out to measure.

5) Verstehen may not be possible in all situations since it is impossible for a researcher to be in one’s shoes without ultimately experiencing what the participant has. If involved too much in a case/ research piece, the researcher could become biased and end up influencing the research totally, making it unusable.

Question 5

MODEL 4 and 6 MARKER

Answer 5

• check email