EXPLANATORY, INTERPETIVE, AND INTEGRATIVE APPROACHES

Explanatory · Durkheim · Freud · Marx (Opler)	A explanatory approach looks for naturalistic and causal sources of experience and behaviour based on assumptions of universal aspects of the human nature, society and mind.
Interpretive · Max Weber · Clifford Geertz (Meckel on the Mandan)	The interpretive approach seeks to think through the worldviews of others, assuming that human beings must be understood in light of their activities and capacities as meaning-makers – interpretive beings who engage and construct the world imaginatively through the fluid symbolic media of given cultures.
Integrative · Shweder (Kripal on the erotic)	An integrative approach is open to aspects of reality and human experience that do not fit in with one’s preconceptions. This applies to one’s notions of the mind and society, and to ultimate and/or metaphysical realities which inform human social and psychical life. It maintains critical receptivity to others’ notions of other realities and strives through dialogue to integrate aspects of these realities into one’s approach.