Editing Interactionism (section)

==Methodology==
Interactionists are interested in how people see themselves in the broader [[social context]] and how they act within society.

In extreme cases, interactionists would deny [[social class]] to be an issue, arguing that people from one class cannot be generalized to all think in one way. Instead, these interactionists believe everyone has different attitudes, values, culture, and beliefs. Therefore, it is the duty of the sociologist to carry out the study within society; they set out to gather [[qualitative data]].

===Rejection of positivist methods===
Interactionists reject statistical ([[Quantitative research|quantitative]]) data, a method preferred by [[Postpositivism|post-positivists]]. These methods include: [[experiment]]s, [[structured interview]]s, [[questionnaire]]s, [[non-participant observation]], and [[secondary source]]s. This rejection is based in a few basic criticisms, namely:
*[[Statistical data]] is not "[[Validity (statistics)|valid]];" in other words, these methods do not provide people with a true picture of society on the topic being researched.
*Quantitative research is [[bias]]ed and therefore not objective. Whilst the sociologist would be distant, it is argued that the existence of a [[hypothesis]] implies that the research is biased towards a pre-set conclusion (e.g., [[Rosenhan experiment]] in 1973). Therefore, such research is rejected by interactionists, who claim that it is [[Social artifact|artificial]] and also raises [[ethical issues]] to experiment on people.

===Preferred interactionist methods===
Interactionists prefer several methods to contrast those of structuralism, particularly: [[unstructured interview]]s, [[covert participant observation]], overt [[participant observation]], and [[content analysis]] via analysing historical, public, and personal documents.

Interactionist methods generally reject the absolute need to provide statistics. Statistics allows [[Causality|cause-and-effect]] to be shown,{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}} as well as isolating [[Statistical variable|variables]] so that relationships and trends can be distinguished over time. Instead, interactionists want to "go deep" to explain society, however this draws criticisms, including:
*Information and sociological research cannot be compared or contrasted, hence one can never truly understand how society changes.
*Data is not [[Reliability (statistics)|reliable]].
*Gathered information is interpreted (hence the name "[[Interpretivism (social science)|Interpretivist]]") by a sociologist, therefore it is not [[Objectivity (philosophy)|objective]].

Despite these criticisms, interactionist methods do allow flexibility. The fact that there is no [[hypothesis]] means that the sociologist is not rooted in an attempt to prove dogma or theory. Instead, researchers react to what they discover, not assuming anything about society. (This is not entirely true: there can be hypotheses for many studies using interactionist methods. The researcher may then be inclined to observe certain events happening while ignoring the bigger picture. This will still bias the results, if such studies are not well conducted. This is arguably why some theorists have turned to this method.{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}} It also shows how human behaviour is affected and altered through interactions i.e. socialization.)

===Case studies===
*[[Field experiment]]s:
**In the [[Rosenhan experiment]], [[David Rosenhan]] (1973) found 8 normal researchers to carry out a study, at 12 hospitals, of the treatment of mental health in California. Critics argue that the method was unethical, and the vast majority of interactionists concur.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}}
*[[Unstructured interview]]s:
**[[Aaron Cicourel]] and [[John Kitsuse]] (1963) conducted an [[ethnomethodology]] study in American schools.
**[[Howard S. Becker|Howard Becker]] (1971)
**[[William Labov]] (1973) conducted a study of [[sociolinguistics]].
**[[Joan Smith (psychologist)|Joan Smith]] (1998)
*[[Participant observation]]:
**[[John Howard Griffin]]
**[[Michael Haralambos]].