Phenomenology in sociology developed around symbolic interactionism and the idea that society is made by people rather than the other way around. Social phenomena are social constructs. The family, for example, is not an objective social fact but rather something that only makes sense in terms of what people mean by the word and what they mean can change over time or between societies. An example is Atkinson's study of suicide where he concluded that a suicide is not a social fact that can be objectively revealed in death statistics, but rather it is a conclusion reached by a coroner, who collates various pieces of evidence relating to the mode of death in order to reach that conclusion. As such, phenomenologists think it makes more sense to conduct qualitative research, rich in validity that offers verstehen, rather than focusing on reliability and trying to generalise to the whole of society.