Interpretivism

Question 1

What are interpretivists interested in?

Answer 1

Subjectivity- Thoughts and feelings

Question 2

What do interpretivists think about scientific methods?

Answer 2

It’s impossible to use scientific methods when studying humans because we are all different and have the ability to read a social situation and decide how we react.

Question 3

Why do interpretivists value validity over reliability and representativeness?

Answer 3

Because the main thing they want to find out is ‘why’ a person chooses to behave in a certain way.

Question 4

What is ‘verstehen’?

Answer 4

Researcher seeing things through the participants eyes.

Question 5

Do interpretivists prefer qualitative or quantitative data and what are some examples?

Answer 5

Qualitative data like interviews and participant observations.

Question 6

What are some criticisms of interepretivism?

Answer 6

-it can be TOO subjective as findings depend on researchers interpretation.
-lacks reliability and generalisability as it’s often focused on small scale samples.