ABSTRACT
This chapter explains some basic foundation principles of interpretivism. It outlines a brief historical account of interpretivism as it unfolded in the form of symbolic interactionism. The chapter provides an exposition on the concept of 'perspectives', a central concept within symbolic interactionism. It describes three important distinctions which many tend to blur in developing eclectic approaches to interpretivist research: the distinction between behaviour and action; the distinction between 'perspectives' and 'perceptions', and the distinction between 'perspectives' and 'attitudes'. For the interpretivist, the individual and society are inseparable units. The interpretivist paradigm is based on different assumptions. In considering the symbolic interactionist's preference for the concept of 'perspectives' over that of 'attitudes' it is useful to consider once again the distinction made above between psychological social psychology and sociological social psychology. P. Woods gets to the heart of what perspectives are when he defines them as 'frameworks through which people make sense of the world'.
