Documentary Method

This chapter discusses the Documentary Method and its comprehensive metatheoretical instruments for empirical work which particularly addresses the tension between habitus and norm respectively, between practice and normative expectation. Starting from its origin and development, the method is here positioned within the canon of empirical research, and then outlined as the research-practical approach along the methodological principles. A research example on the practical handling of gender-typical norms of physical self-presentation concludes the chapter. It is shown that the Documentary Method is based on a complex, dynamic concept of culture and how the view of collectivity enabled by this unfolds relevance for psychological questions.