The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the methodological and theoretical assumptions of interpretive research as proposed by Erickson (1986), based on the premises that Blumer (1969) posed for symbolic interactionism. A specific example of a conceptual framework for studying the major theoretical constructs identified in distance education research will be presented. Although this framework...

The goal of the study was to understand the meaning of support groups in the life of women with breast cancer. It is a qualitative study with 30 mastectomized women who belonged to six support groups in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará. Data were collected with semi-structured interviews, organized and analyzed based on the interactionism concept. The results characterized the support groups as a m...

This is a qualitative study which uses Grounded Theory as its methodological framework and Symbolic Interactionism as a theoretical base to understand the experience of family caregivers for Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA) patients with regard to social support during their rehabilitation process at home. The components (themes and categories) of the phenomenon assuming home care and specificall...

The goal was to understand the nurse / patient communication process, emphasizing nursing care to mastectomized women. Symbolic Interactionism and Grounded Theory were used to interview eight nurses from a referral institution in cancer treatment, using the guiding question: how do nurses perceive their communication process with mastectomized women? Data analysis allowed for the creation of a ...

The present study, which was conducted using the Interpretive Interactionism method, had the objective of understanding the experience of becoming a mother of a child with cancer. Seven mothers, whose children were undergoing cancer treatment, took part in semi-structured interviews. The results showed that mothers' role are built in a process that implies the interaction between two themes: LI...

The objective of this study is to describe the evolution of palliative care in order to reflect on the possibility of its origin in primitive cultures and their relationship with the beginnings of the cult of the dead. It describes the change in the symbolic structures and social interactions involved in palliative care during prehistory: functional unit, functional framework and functional ele...

The objective of this study was to understand the vulnerability experienced by the family of children hospitalized in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). The Symbolic Interactionism and the Concept of Family Vulnerability were the frameworks used to understand this experience. Qualitative Content Analysis was used. Data was collected through interviews and observation with 11 families of ch...

In this article, we apply concepts from symbolic interactionism a well-established tradition of interpretivist sociology to investigate the social and political processes involved in a sociotechnical intervention. The intervention was designed to elicit operator involvement in an experimental trial of an advanced manufacturing system at an industrial site in Australia. The interactionist concep...

We introduce Radical Interactionism (RI), which extends Franklin et al.’s (2013) Cognitive Cycles as Cognitive Atoms (CCCA) proposal in their discussion on conceptual commitments in cognitive models. Similar to the CCCA commitment, the RI commitment acknowledges the indivisibility of the perception-action cycle. However, it also reifies the perception-action cycle as sensorimotor interaction an...

The purpose of this study was to understand how the family faces the challenge of having a child with Down Syndrome among its members, so that, from this understanding, nurses can propose and carry out a careful emphasis on family responses to current and potential problems experienced. Symbolic Interactionism and the initial steps of Grounded Theory were used. The study comprised eight familie...