Dominant Approaches and Ideas

Interpretative Social Science

People create and associate their own subjective meanings as they interact with the world around.

Interpretative Paradigm

Claims that our knowledge of reality is only socially constructed, thus there is NO OBJECTIVE

Max Weber

Asserted the social science needed to study significant social actions

Verstehen

Understanding; a concept of Max Weber where we should have meaningful social actions.

Wilhelm Dilthey

Argued the importance of an empathic discernment of everyday lived experience of people in a particular historical setting

Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Interpret and understand human experiences rather than just describe them

Hermeneutics

Understood as an exegesis or an interpretation of the Holy Scriptures; meaning “to draw the meaning out of” a given text

Phenomenology

Science of phenomenon; science of experience by analyzing structures of conscious experience from a subjective perspective

Texts

Conversations, written words, or pictures

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbols help us understand how we view society and communicate with each other.

Critical Social Science

Analytical method that attempts to uncover surface illusions to reveal real structures in the material world for social transformation, for the better. An attempt to improve society.

Goals of Critical Social Science

• to evaluate and alter social relations

• to understand the origins of social inequality

Feminist Theory

aims to eliminate gender inequality by analyzing the status of men and women in society

Psychoanalysis

Aims to understand human behavior by making the unconscious conscious

Human environment systems

Aims to promote sustainability by understanding how human and environmental systems interact.

Phenomenology becomes hermeneutical

When the method takes an interpretative approach instead of a solely descriptive nature

Data

Things known or assumed as facts, creating the basis of reassigning or calculation

Historicality

Refers to a person’s background or history that includes what one receives from culture since birth and then passed from generations to generations.

Preunderstanding

Meaning or organization of a culture that is already there before we understand

Symbolic Interactionism

An approach that sees society as the product of the everyday interactions of individuals; human interaction is facilitated by symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings

George Herbert Mead

Said that Symbolic Interactionism refers to a sociological method that studies the behavior of individuals and small groups through observation and description

Herbert Blumer

Believe that the most human and humanizing activity that people engage in is talking to each other

Feminist Theory

Extension of feminism into theoretical and political discourse

Feminism

Collective systems of beliefs and theories that give special emphasis to women’s rights and position in culture and society

Patriarchal society

Men hold primary power and have authority over women in all aspects

Gender Idealogies

Meanings involved in the attitudes and assignments of roles of women and men within the household and outside of it

Gender Inequality

Unequal treatment or perceptions of persons based on gender.

Stems from differences in socially constructed gender roles and systems that are dichotomous and hierarchical