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examBoard: Cambridge
examType: IGCSE
lessonTitle: The interpretivist approach - micro view
While positivists focus on finding patterns and laws in society through scientific methods, interpretivists take a completely different approach. They believe that to truly understand society, we need to look at how people make sense of their social world and the meanings they give to their actions.
Key Definitions:
Interpretivists see society as created through the interactions and interpretations of individuals. Unlike positivists who view society as a fixed structure that shapes us, interpretivists believe we actively create society through our everyday actions and the meanings we give them.
Interpretivists focus on small-scale (micro) interactions between individuals rather than large-scale (macro) social structures. They study face-to-face interactions, conversations and how people make sense of their everyday lives.
Interpretivists follow several core principles that guide their approach to studying society:
Interpretivists believe that human actions are meaningful. People act based on the meanings they give to situations, objects and other people. To understand society, we need to understand these meanings.
Weber introduced the concept of 'Verstehen' (empathetic understanding). He argued that sociologists should try to understand the meanings people give to their actions. For example, if someone raises their hand in class, are they asking a question, voting on something, or stretching? The same action can have different meanings.
Interpretivists argue that what we consider 'reality' is actually created through social interactions. The way we understand the world is shaped by our interactions with others and the meanings we collectively create.
In their book "The Social Construction of Reality" (1966), they argued that what we take for granted as 'real' is actually created through social processes. For example, the idea of being a 'teenager' is a relatively recent social construction that didn't exist in the same way in earlier societies.
Interpretivists prefer qualitative research methods that allow them to understand the meanings people give to their actions:
Researchers join the group they're studying to understand their experiences from the inside. For example, a sociologist might join a gang to understand gang culture from the members' perspective.
Open-ended conversations that allow participants to express their views in their own words, rather than being limited by fixed questions or answers.
Detailed studies of specific cultural groups, often involving living with the group for extended periods to understand their way of life.
This approach focuses on how people interact through symbols (like language, gestures and objects) and how these interactions create meaning.
Howard Becker's study of marijuana users showed how being labelled as a 'deviant' can affect someone's identity and future behaviour. When society labels someone as a 'criminal' or 'troublemaker', that person may start to see themselves that way and act accordingly - a 'self-fulfilling prophecy'.
Key thinkers: George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer and Erving Goffman.
This approach studies how people make sense of their everyday world and the 'methods' they use to create social order in their interactions.
Harold Garfinkel asked his students to act as if they were lodgers in their own homes, being overly polite to family members. This 'breached' normal expectations and caused confusion and even anger, revealing the unspoken rules that govern our everyday interactions.
Let's see how interpretivists might approach different social issues:
Positivist approach: Count how many times students break rules and look for patterns based on factors like gender or social class.
Interpretivist approach: Observe classroom interactions and interview students to understand why they behave as they do. They might discover that what teachers see as 'misbehaviour' is actually students trying to gain respect from peers or coping with feeling bored or confused.
Interpretivists like Paul Willis have studied how young people create meaning through their participation in subcultures. In his study "Learning to Labour," Willis showed how working-class boys created their own counter-culture that valued practical skills over academic achievement. This helped them feel successful even though they were failing in the school system.
The interpretivist approach reminds us that society isn't just about structures and statistics - it's about real people making choices, creating meaning and interpreting their world. By focusing on the micro level, interpretivists help us understand the rich complexity of everyday social life and how people actively create the social world rather than just being shaped by it.
While positivists might tell us what people do, interpretivists help us understand why they do it - from their own perspective. Both approaches have their place in sociology, giving us different but complementary ways of understanding society.
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