Documents

Between a positivist and interpretivist who would favour and reject documents.

Interpretivists favour documents as they achieve their goal of validity.

• They are typically written without the idea of someone using it for research in mind, so it authentic

• They provide deep qualitative data

Positivists reject them as they are not reliable, generalisable or representative.

• They are often not standardised and are unique

• They are not representative

• The meanings written within the document may be interpreted differently

Advantages of documents

• Personal documents can give more detailed qualitive data. This is favoured most by interpretivists

• Sometimes they are the only source of studying the past

• They are cheap as the information has already been gathered - also saves time

• Unique

Practical issues with using documents

• Historical documents are often hard to access

• A long time to access and once access, may require training to decode a message - time consuming

• Finding documents that for the purpose of the research can be costly and time consuming

Ethical issues with documents

• Personal documents are made to not be shown

• Relatives may not wish their families history to not be shared, especially sensitive issues such as suicide

• Some historical documents may not be released due to sensitive information the government is hiding, that implements others wrongdoings

Theorical issues with documents

• How do we know the source is authentic and credible

• can we be certain the views expressed by one person are representative of the majority

• interpretations of documents may be taken out of place from the true meaning

Examples of documents

• Thomas and Znaniecki - Analysed letters from Polish migrants in the USA to their relatives back home

• Douglas analysed suicide notes and diaries to try and understand meanings and motivations of suicide victims