Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs

Historical Roots of Qualitative Research

The proliferation of qualitative studies in current research literature can be traced to at least one clear historical benchmark—the application to the human or social sciences of the German term Verstehen, loosely translated as “to understand” or “to interpret,” by the German philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey in the mid-nineteenth century. Dilthey and other philosophers used the term to describe an individual's first-person perspective on his or her own experience, culture, history, and society. Subsequently, German sociologists Max Weber and Georg Simmel advocated Verstehen as a mode of sociological research in which an outside observer systematically gathers information on a particular phenomenon from the ...