Qualitative Field Research

1
Chapter 10

• Qualitative Field Research

2
Chapter Outline

• Introduction
• Topics Appropriate to Field Research
• Special Considerations in Qualitative Field
  Research
• Some Qualitative Field Research Paradigms

3
Chapter Outline

• Conducting Qualitative Field Research
• Strengths and Weaknesses or Qualitative Field
  Research
• Research Ethics in Qualitative Field Research
• Strengths and Weaknesses of Qualitative Field
  Research

4
Topics for Field Research

• Attitudes and behaviors best understood in a
  natural setting.
• Social processes over time.

5
Question

• Why is field research appropriate to research
  topics that defy simple quantification?
• field researchers may recognize several nuances
  of attitude that might escape researchers using
  other methods.
• field research is appropriate to the study of
  those attitudes best understood within their
  natural setting.
• field research is well suited to the study of
  social processes over time.
• all of these choices

6
Answer D

• Field research is appropriate to research topics
  that defy simple quantification because field
  researchers may recognize several nuances of
  attitude that might escape researchers using
  other methods, field research is appropriate to
  the study of those attitudes best understood
  within their natural setting, and field research
  is well suited to the study of social processes
  over time.

7
Elements of Social Life Appropriate to Field
Research

• Practices talking, reading a book
• Episodes divorce, crime, illness
• Encounters people meeting and interacting
• Role occupations, family roles
• Relationships friendships, family

8
Elements of Social Life Appropriate to Field
Research

• Groups cliques, teams, work groups
• Organizations hospitals, schools
• Settlements neighborhoods, ghettoes
• Social worlds "wall street", "the sports world
• Lifestyles (subcultures) urban, homeless

9
Field Research Paradigms

• Naturalism
• Ethnomethodology
• Grounded theory
• Case studies and the extended case method
• Institutional ethnography
• Participatory action research

10
Preparing for Field Work

• Fill in your knowledge of the subject.
• Discuss the group you plan to research with an
  informant.
• Develop an identity with the people to be
  studied.
• Realize that your initial contact with the group
  can influence your observations.

11
Question

• When you use field research, youre confronted
  with
• decisions about the role youll play as an
  observer
• your relations with the people youre observing
• both a and b
• none of these choices

12
Answer C

• When you use field research, youre confronted
  with decisions about the role youll play as an
  observer, and your relations with the people
  youre observing.

13
Reactivity

• The problem that the subjects of social research
  may react to the fact of being studied, thus
  altering their behavior from what it would have
  been normally.

14
Naturalism

• Approach to field research based on the
  assumption that an objective social reality
  exists and can be observed and reported
  accurately.

15
Ethnography

• A report on social life that focuses on detailed
  and accurate description rather than explanation.

16
Ethnomethodology

• An approach to the study of social life that
  focuses on the discovery of implicit, usually
  unspoken assumptions and agreements.

17
Grounded Theory

• An inductive approach to the study of social life
  that attempts to generate a theory from the
  constant comparing of unfolding observations.

18
Question

• __________ is an old tradition in qualitative
  research based on the assumption that an
  objective social reality exists and can be
  observed and reported accurately.
• naturalism
• ethnography
• ethnomethodology
• none of these choices

19
Answer A

• Naturalism is an old tradition in qualitative
  research based on the assumption that an
  objective social reality exists and can be
  observed and reported accurately.

20
Guidelines for Grounded Theory

• Grounded theory allows the researcher to be
  scientific and creative at the same time, as long
  as these guidelines are followed
• Think comparatively.
• Obtain multiple viewpoints.
• Periodically step back.
• Maintain an attitude of skepticism.
• Follow the research procedures.

21
Case Studies

• In-depth examination of a single instance of some
  social phenomenon, such as a village, a family,
  or a juvenile gang.
• Extended case method
• Technique in which case study observations are
  used to discover flaws in and to improve existing
  social theories.

22
Institutional Ethnography

• Research technique in which the personal
  experiences of individuals are used to reveal
  power relationships and other characteristics of
  the institutions within which they operate.

23
Participatory Action Research

• Approach to social research in which the people
  being studied are given control over the purpose
  and procedures of the research.
• Intended as a counter to the implicit view that
  researchers are superior to those they study.

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Seven Stages of Interviewing

• Thematizing
• Design
• Interviewing
• Transcribing

25
Seven Stages of Interviewing

• Analyzing
• Verifying and checking facts
• Reporting

26
Qualitative Interview

• An interaction between an interviewer and a
  respondent in which the interviewer has a general
  plan of inquiry but not a specific set of
  questions that must be asked with particular
  words and in a particular order.

27
Focus Group

• A group of people are brought together in a room
  to engage in guided discussion of a topic.

28
Question

• A ______________ is an interaction between an
  interviewer and a respondent in which the
  interviewer has a general plan of inquiry, but
  not a set of questions that must be asked with
  particular words in a particular order.
• questionnaire project
• field research project
• quantitative interview
• qualitative interview
• none of these choices

29
Answer D

• A qualitative interview is an interaction between
  an interviewer and a respondent in which the
  interviewer has a general plan of inquiry, but
  not a set of questions that must be asked with
  particular words in a particular order.

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Advantages of Focus Groups

• Socially oriented research method
• Flexible
• High face validity
• Speedy results
• Low in cost

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Disadvantages of Focus Groups

• Less control than individual interviews.
• Data can be difficult to analyze.
• Moderators must be skilled.

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Disadvantages of Focus Groups

• Difference between groups can be troublesome.
• Groups are difficult to assemble.
• Discussion must be conducted in a conducive
  environment.

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Guidelines - Taking Research Notes

• Dont trust your memory. Take notes while you
  observe.
• Take sketchy notes in the field and rewrite them
  later, filling in the details.

34
Guidelines - Taking Research Notes

• Record everything.
• Things that don't seem important may turn out to
  be significant.
• Realize that most of your field notes will not be
  reflected in your final project.

35
Strengths of Field Research

• Permits a great depth of understanding.
• Flexibility - research may be modified at any
  time.
• Inexpensive
• Has more validity than surveys or experiments.

36
Weaknesses of Field Research

• Qualitative and not appropriate for statistical
  descriptions of populations.
• Has potential problems with reliability since
  field research methods are often personal.

37
Is It Ethical?

• To talk to people when they don't know you will
  be recording their words?
• To get information for your own purposes from
  people you hate?
• To see a severe need for help and not respond to
  it directly?

38
Is It Ethical?

• To be in a situation but not commit yourself
  wholeheartedly to it?
• To be strategic in your relations with others?
• To take sides or avoid taking sides in a
  factionalized situation?

39
Is It Ethical?

• To "pay" people with tradeoffs for access to
  their lives and minds?
• To "use" people as allies or informants in order
  to gain entrée to other people or to elusive
  understandings?

40
Quick Quiz
41

• 1. _________________ describes when the subjects
  of social research may react to the fact of being
  studied, thus altering their behavior from what
  it would have been normally.
• reactivity
• sensitivity
• hyperactivity
• all of these choices

42
Answer A

• Reactivity describes when the subjects of social
  research may react to the fact of being studied,
  thus altering their behavior from what it would
  have been normally.

43

• 2. The naturalist approach is based on telling
  their stories the way they really are, not
  the way the ethnographer understands them.
• True
• False

44
Answer True

• The naturalist approach is based on telling
  their stories the way they really are, not
  the way the ethnographer understands them.

45

• 3. In a ____________, typically 12 to 15 people
  are brought together to engage in a guided
  discussion of some topic.
• classroom
• focus group
• micro study
• none of these choices

46
Answer B

• In a focus group, typically 12 to 15 people are
  brought together to engage in a guided discussion
  of some topic.

47

• 4. Professor Oxley performed a field research
  study of how students make sense of their
  everyday world. Which approach did he use?
• case study
• ethnomethodology
• focus group
• qualitative interview
• reflexivity

48
Answer B

• Professor Oxley performed a field research study
  of how students make sense of their everyday
  world. He used the ethnomethodology approach.

49

• 5. Professor Sullivan performed an observational
  study of the norms that govern interactions
  between cab drivers and their passengers. Which
  one of the following does this example reflect?
• Roles
• Encounters
• Episodes
• Groups
• Settlements

50
Answer B

• Professor Sullivan performed an observational
  study of the norms that govern interactions
  between cab drivers and their passengers. This
  example reflects encounters.

51

• 6. In comparison to surveys and experiments,
  field research has
• high validity and high reliability.
• high validity and low reliability.
• low validity and low reliability.
• low validity and high reliability.
• high reliability, but only when the validity is
  high.

52
Answer B

• In comparison to surveys and experiments, field
  research has high validity and low reliability.