Social Sciences, Qualitative Research In

When one thinks of the social sciences, one typically envisions a group of academic disciplines that study various human aspects of the social world. The social sciences are distinguishable from the arts and humanities chiefly because social scientists employ the use of the scientific method in their studies of human groups, societies, and humanity.

Qualitative research in the social sciences involves the use of a variety of available qualitative methodologies. Qualitative research, however, is a bit amorphous to define; the most obvious definition is that it is research that uses methods that are not primarily quantitative (numerical) in nature. Qualitative research may also be viewed as using various methods that embrace the quality or essence of something, some phenomenon, or even some event. Some people believe qualitative methods are largely subjective, where the researcher is used as the instrument of data collection or at least as a filter for capturing information on some subject. Other people suggest that qualitative research in the social sciences involves historical tracing or at least some sort of historical contextualization of whatever the researcher is investigating. Those with a more theoretical stance claim that qualitative research in the social sciences is guided by the orientations set forth in symbolic interaction.

Symbolic interaction is one of several theoretical schools of thought available in the social sciences. This orientation maintains that what humans do and say are the result of how they interpret their social world to have meaning; in effect, what people do and say has specific meanings communicated through mutually shared understandings of symbols, the most common of which being language. One reason for these various nuances in meaning for qualitative research in the social sciences is that various disciplines and fields commonly thought of as comprising the social sciences have sought to incorporate their own interpretations and perspectives on the methodological frameworks by which they plan and organize their research endeavors. In this manner, they seek to capture their own discipline's theoretical perspectives and epistemological orientations while using a qualitative methodological paradigm.