H11 Research Methods Flashcards
Ethnography
Mostly found in anthropology and sociology. It literally means ‘writing about people’, which it does to better understand people’s way of life. The ethnographer is an outsider that aims to learn from insiders. It is a collection of specific techniques. It assumes that people constantly make inferences.
Ethnomethodology
A method for the study of everyday common sense knowledge and interactions of people. They use a specialised, highly detailed analysis of micro-situations (e.g., transcripts of short conversations or videotapes of social interactions). Compared to other field research, they argue that knowledge about the social world depends greatly on the particular method used to study it.
Name the steps of conducting a field research study
- Prepare to enter the field
- Choose a field site and gain access
- Apply strategies
- Maintain relations in the field
- Gather and record data
- Exit the field site
Name the 6 types of field notes
1) Jotted notes: the only notes you write in the field. They are very short memory triggers such as words, phrases or drawings. You take them inconspicuously, for example by scribbling on a convenient item (e.g., napkin). They are never a substitute for the direct observation notes.
2) Direct observation notes: The primary source of field data. You should write them immediately after leaving the site. They serve as a detailed description of everything you heard and saw in concrete, specific terms.
3) Inference notes: you want to listen closely to what people say in the field so you can ‘walk in their shoes’. This involves a three-step process: 1) listen without applying analytical categories; 2) compare what you hear now to what you heard at other times and to what others say; 3) apply your interpretation to infer what it means. You want to look and listen without inferring or imposing an interpretation at first.
4) Analytic memos: methodological notes that keep a record of your plans, tactics, ethical and procedural decisions, and self-critiques of tactics.
5) Personal notes: personal feelings and emotional reactions. They are part of the data in field research and provide as a way to cope with stress.
6) Interview notes: information such as the date, place of interview, characteristics of interviewee, content of the interview, and so on.
Informant
An informant in field research is a member with whom you develop a relationship and who tells about, or informs on, the field.
Which four characteristics does the ideal informant have?
1) The informant is familiar with the culture and is in a position to witness significant events. He/she lives and breathes the culture and engages in routines in the setting without thinking about them.
2) The informant is currently involved in the field.
3) The informant can spend time with you. Interviewing may take many hours, and some members are simply not available for extensive interviewing.
4) Non-analytic individuals make better informants: they are familiar with and use native folk theory or pragmatic common sense. This is in contrast to the analytic member, who pre-analyses the setting, using categories from the media or education.
Which type of questions are used in field interviews?
Descriptive, structural and contrast questions. Descriptive questions are asked during the early stage. They help you explore the setting and learn about members. Then structural questions are added gradually until you reach the middle stage. Structural questions are used to verify the categories you developed during the descriptive questions. In the middle stage, structural questions become the majority. Begin to ask contrast questions in the middle stage and increase them until, by the end, you ask them more than the other types. The contrast questions ask members of the field to verify similarities and differences you believe exist, based on answers to the structural questions beforehand.
Internal consistency (field research)
Asks whether the data are plausible given all that is known about a person or event. For example, are a member’s actions consistent over time and across situations?
External consistency (field research)
Situates data in a specific social context. It means verifying and cross-checking all observations against one another and integrating divergent sources of data.
Validity (field research)
Comes from your analysis and data as accurate representations of the social world in the field.
Which 4 types of validity do you have in field research?
1) Ecological validity: the degree to which the social world you describe matches the world of members. A study has ecological validity if events would likely have occurred without your presence.
2) Natural history: a detailed description of how you conducted the study. A study is valid in terms of natural history if outsiders see and accept the field side and your actions.
3) Member validation: occurs when you take field results back to members, who judge their adequacy. A study is “member valid” if many members recognise and understand your description as reflecting their intimate social world. It has its limitations, for example if conflicting perspectives in a setting produce disagreement or members may object when results do not portray their group in a favourable light.
4) Competent insider performance: the ability of a nonmember to interact effectively as a member or pass as one. This includes the ability to tell and understand insider jokes.
Which ethical issues occur with field research?
Dilemmas will arise when you are alone in the field and have little time to deliberate over ethics. Even if you are aware of general ethical issues before entering the field, situations arise unexpectedly. Such issues include power relations (conducting studies on powerless people), confidentiality, involvement with illegal behaviour (can be unsafe for the research)
Focus group research
A qualitative technique in which you informally study a group-discussion setting. In focus group research, you gather 6-12 people in a room with a moderator to discuss a few issues. Most focus group sessions last about 90 minutes. The moderator is trained to be non directive and to facilitate free, open discussion by all group members (i.e., not let one person dominate the discussion). A typical study has four to six groups. What people reveal in a focus group is influenced by the context and the status of other people around them: people often respond very differently when people of higher or lower status are present.
Name the 6 advantages of focus group research.
- The natural setting allows people to express opinions/ideas freely
- Open expression among members of marginalised social groups is encouraged
- People tend to feel empowered, especially in action-orientated research projects
- Survey researchers are provided a window into how people talk about survey topics
- The interpretation of quantitative survey results is faciliated
- Participants may query one another and explain their answers to each other
Name the 6 disadvantages of focus group research.
- A “polarisation effect” exists (attitudes become more extreme after group discussion)
- Only one/a few topics can be discussed in a focus group session
- A moderator may unknowingly limit open, free expression of group members
- Focus group participants produce fewer ideas than in individual interviews
- Focus group studies rarely report all the details of study design/procedure
- Researchers cannot reconcile the differences that arise between individual-only and focus group-context responses
