Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

THE MEANINGS OF METHODOLOGY

report is a detailed description of the gambling

world. The theory and evidence are interwoven to

create a unified whole; the concepts and general-

izations are wedded to their context.

7.How does one determine whether an expla-

nation is true or false?

PSS logically deduces from theory, collects

data, and analyzes facts in ways that allow replica-

tion. For ISS, a theory is true if it makes sense to

those being studied and if it allows others to enter

the reality of those being studied. The theory or de-

scription is accurate if the researcher conveys a deep

understanding of the way others reason, feel, and

see things. Prediction may be possible but it is a type

of prediction that occurs when two people are very

close as when they have been married for a long

time. An interpretive explanation documents the

actor’s point of view and translates it into a form

that is intelligible to readers. Smart (1976:100) calls

this the postulate of adequacy:

The postulate of adequacy asserts that if a scientific

account of human action were to be presented to an

individual actor as a script it must be understand-

able to that actor, translatable into action by the

actor and furthermore comprehensible to his fellow

actors in terms of a common sense interpretation of

everyday life.

Like a traveler telling about a foreign land, the

researcher is not a native. Such an outside view

never equals the insider account that people who are

you depart. People develop ways to maintain or re-

produce a sense of reality based on systems of

meaning that they create in the course of social in-

teractions with others.

6.What constitutes an explanation or theory
of social reality?
PSS theory tries to mimic theory in natural sci-
ence. It may have deductive axioms, theorems, and
interconnected causal laws. Instead of intercon-
nected laws and propositions, theory for ISS tells a
story. ISS describes and interprets how people con-
duct their daily lives. While it may contain social
science concepts and limited generalizations, it does
not dramatically depart from the lived experiences
and inner reality of the people being studied.
ISS is idiographic and inductive. Idiographic
means that the approach provides a symbolic rep-
resentation or “thick” description of something else.
An interpretive research report may read like a novel
or a biography. It is rich in detailed description and
limited in abstraction. Like the interpretation of a
literary work, it has internal coherence and is rooted
in the text, which here refers to the meaningful
everyday experiences of the people being studied.
The purpose of ISS theory is to provide an
interpretative explanation. ISS attempts to provide
readers a deep feeling for another person’s social
reality by revealing the meanings, values, interpre-
tive schemes, and rules of daily living. For example,
ISS theory may describe major typifications that
people use in a setting to recognize and interpret
their experiences. A typificationis an informal
model, scheme, or set of beliefs that people use to
categorize and organize the flow of the daily events
they experience.
ISS theory resembles a map that outlines a so-
cial world and describes local customs and norms.
For example, an interpretive report on professional
gamblers tells the reader about the careers and daily
concerns of such people. The report describes the
specific individuals studied, the locations and ac-
tivities observed, and the strategies used to gamble.
The reader learns how professional gamblers speak,
how they view others, and what their fears or ambi-
tions are. The researcher provides some general-
izations and organizing concepts, but the bulk of the

Idiographic A type of explanation used in interpre-

tive social science in which the explanation is an in-

depth description or picture with specific details but

limited abstraction about a social situation or setting.

Typification An informal model or scheme people

use in everyday life to categorize and organize the flow

of the events and situations that they experience; often

part of common knowledge or common sense, it sim-

plifies and helps to organize the complexity and flow

of life.

Postulate of adequacy An interpretive social sci-

ence principle that explanations should be under-

standable in commonsense terms by the people being

studied.