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Debriefing
A researcher's informing subjects after an experiment about the experiment's purposes and methods and evaluating subjects' personal reactions to the experiment.
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Positivism
The belief, shared by most scientists, that there is a reality that exists quite apart from our own perception of it, that it can be understood through observation, and that it follows general laws.
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Postpositivism
The belief that there is an empirical reality, but that our understanding of it is limited by its complexity and by the biases and other limitations of researchers.
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Intersubjective Agreement
An agreement by different observers on what is happening in the natural or social world.
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Interpretivism
The belief that reality is socially constructed and that the goal of social scientists is to understand what meanings people give to that reality. Max Weber termed the goal of interpretivist research verstehen, or "understanding."
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Constructivist Paradigm
A perspective that emphasizes how different stakeholders in social settings construct their beliefs.
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Hermeneutic Circle
Represents the dialetical process in which the researcher obtains information from multiple stakeholders in a setting, refines his or her understanding of the setting, and then tests that understanding with successive respondents.
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Feminist Research
Research with a focus on women's lives and often including an orientation to personal experience, subjective orientations, the researcher's standpoint, and emotions.
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