Interpretivism

Interpretivism

1. Who?

   • Weber notes people are active, conscious beings with free will, capable of making with their own choices
   • Argue there is a difference between sociology and natural science
   • Prefer QUALITATIVE DATA
   • Prefer open ended approach and seek to understand individuals experiences

2. Meanings and experiences

   • Humans act on purpose and intention
   • Society is socially constructed
     • 1. people choose to come together and interact
     • 2. we interpret actions
   • people are the architects of society- acknowledge and sum interactions
   • Mead argues an important part of socialisation was learning how to interpret interactions

3. Versethen and Rapport

   • need to develop empathetic understanding
   • Unique and trusting relationships should be established to understand a true picture of the lives
   • Validity is able to establish versethen to research the subjects feelings of their experiences of social life

4. Primary and secondary data

   • Use unstructured interviews and observations
     • Results in validity
   • Have large amount of data in form of words
   • research methods are ethnographic
   • Conversational, covert research