Week 1 Flashcards

Question

What is an "interpretivist paradigm"?

Answer 1

This argues that we need to understand people’s interpretations of the world, and that research should attempt to understand the meaning and significance of the world from the perspective of those who live in it. Interpretivism informs a number of different academic disciplines including different branches of sociology and anthropology. Again using our delineation of ontology and epistemology, we can argue that interpretivism has a relativist ontology (i.e. interpretivism assumes that reality and social meanings are constructed subjectively) and a subjectiv- ist epistemology (i.e. the assumption is that the researcher is inherently part of the object of investigation and that it is important to understand phenomena from the viewpoint of those being studied). Unlike positivists, interpretivists recognise that research cannot be value free. Instead, the researcher is encouraged to reflect on, and be as transparent as possible about, their subjective understandings and possible biases. In this way, interpretivism draws on hermeneutics, a branch of philosophy concerned with the theory and practice of interpretation. . . Interpretivist approaches tend to use naturalistic, non-experimental methods, designed to access the understandings that people have about their own and others’ actions, and the meanings they attribute to these.

Answer 2

Macro-level; Middle range; Micro-level

Answer 3

Focuses on large-scale processes and frames high-level research questions about the way the world is, and how people and things behave. Examples of macro-level theories include the ‘Big Bang Theory’ in physics and astronomy or Marxism in social and political science.

Answer 4

links empirical research with theoretical concepts to generate hypotheses/questions. The TPB does this, for example, explaining that a person’s intention to stop smoking (a behavior) is a function of their attitudes (positive or negative) towards that behavior or subjective norms (what they think others think about it), and their perception of control (how easy they think it is to quit).

Answer 5

It focuses on small groups and individuals, rather than large structures and systems, and explains how people make sense of everyday interactions. A good example of a micro-level theory is Goffman’s theory of social stigma [9], which argues that some attributes or behaviors are socially discrediting and cause the stigmatized individual to be labeled and treated as abnormal or undesirable.

Answer 6

associated with the philosopher, Husserl, and explores how individuals make sense of the world in terms of the meanings they create and use about that world. Typically, phenomenologists use interviews to elicit people’s subjective ‘lived’ experiences. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is a variant of this approach, often used in qualitative psychology, to examine experi- ences and to explore how an individual or a small group comprehend these

Answer 7

As the name suggests, seeks to understand inter- actions, encounters, and exchanges between people and groups, and often places particular emphasis on examining the symbols, especially the language people use in encounters. Symbolic interactionism explains how people create and change meanings through their social interactions and relationships with each other, and, therefore, uses qualitative observation as well as interviews to collect data.

Answer 8

This theoretical perspective takes the relativist position that ‘reality’ is socially constructed and focuses attention on research questions about how this ‘construction’ happens, and who makes and sustains particular versions of reality. This theoretical approach often uses open-ended interviews, sometimes doing multiple interviews with the same people to uncover these versions of reality and their making. Documentary analysis may also be used to show how ‘accounts’ of phenomena are ‘produced’ and sustained. Social constructivism is a variant of this perspective [14], particularly associated with education research, that is especially concerned with how knowledge is constructed by learners and is thus often used in health promotion research and studies of health professional education.

Answer 9

This theoretical perspective examines the methods and practices people use to construct the common-sense understandings that allow them to navigate the social world. Early work informed by this theoretical perspective focused on conversations and led to the development of conversational analysis (CA), a method for analyzing verbal and non-verbal interactions (see Chapter 10). Ethnomethodologically-informed research, and CA in particular, emphasizes naturally occurring talk and practices and thus may use an unobtrusive recording of conversations and/or observation to collect data.

Answer 10

the study of people and culture. Like anthro- pology, which it is derived from, it relies heavily on direct observation of groups and settings to understand how people see their social world, but may also involve a range of other data collection methods. A key feature of this theoretical perspective is the aim to explore the whole culture found in a particular location or associated with a particular group

Answer 11

Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Constructionism, Interactionism, Critical theory, and Phenomenology

Answer 12

A term that encompasses a range of standpoints, some oppositional to each other, but often associated with ideas drawn from Marxism, feminism, and the Frankfurt School [15]. This collec- tion of theoretical perspectives places emphasis on explaining how power operates in society, and often seeks to inform or effect transfor- mation and social change. As such, researchers informed by critical theory may be interested in how knowledge is constructed to include and exclude different groups, and how hierarchies and oppressive rela- tionships are created and maintained. Researchers adopting a critical theoretic stance also often argue that research should be used to liber- ate or emancipate people and thus they may favour participatory or action research designs that cede control to, or encourage greater input from, research participants

Answer 13

The rationale, or rules and proce- dures, for doing and evaluating research. Strictly, it should be distin- guished from ‘methods’, which are the particular techniques, or means of collecting and analysing data. Methodology is the justification for approaching research in a particular way.

Answer 14

A methodology directed to the development of theoretical explanations. It uses inductive and deductive reasoning during data gathering and analysis, although the inductive form is dominant; as the name implies, theories are generated from ‘the ground’ (i.e. the data).