The logic of naturalistic inquiry

This chapter offers a view of naturalism that takes as its point of departure the social behaviorism of G. H. Mead and the symbolic interactionism of H. Blumer. Existing formulations of naturalism as a distinct approach to empirical inquiry in the social sciences suffer from several overriding flaws. Naturalistic theorists and practitioners have seldom been in agreement on what they mean by the method. Perhaps the basic deficiency of prior naturalistic formulations has been the absence of a more general theoretical perspective that would integrate all phases of the sociological act. Naturalism places severe strain on the observer - emotional, physical and ethical. Naturalistic behaviorism places the sociological observer squarely in the center of the research act. As a field strategy naturalism implies a profound respect for the character of the empirical world. The naturalist resists schemes and models which oversimplify the complexity of everyday life. The naturalist seeks to employ multiple native informants.