Interpretivism

Interpretivism holds that people construct social reality through language, culture, and shared meanings, so it cannot be studied the way physical objects are. Instead of seeking universal laws, interpretivist research aims to understand how particular people make sense of their situations, typically through interviews, observation, and textual analysis. The researcher is an instrument of interpretation rather than a neutral recorder, which makes reflexivity central to the work.

In a thesis, an interpretivist stance justifies small purposive samples, open-ended methods, and findings presented as situated understanding rather than generalizable fact. It also changes the quality criteria: credibility, transferability, and a transparent audit trail replace statistical validity. Declaring the stance in the methodology chapter and evaluating your work by its own standards keeps the whole thesis philosophically consistent.