300 W7 Discussion

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Observing People in Natural Setting

Chapter 10

What is Field Research?

Field research produces qualitative data.
Field researchers directly observe and participate in a natural social setting.
There are several kinds of field research:
ethnography
participant-observation research
informal “depth” interviews
focus groups

What is Field Research?

Ethnography = A detailed description of insider meanings and cultural knowledge of living cultures in natural settings.

Studying People in the Field

Naturalism = The principle that we learn best by observing ordinary events in a natural setting, not in a contrived, invented, or researcher-created setting

Preparing for a Field Study

Increasing Self Awareness

Conducting Background Investigation

Practice observing and writing

Studying People in the Field

Starting the Research Project

Getting Organized.
Selecting a Field Site
Field Site = Any location or set of locations in which field research takes place. It usually has on-going social interaction and a shared culture.
Containment
Richness
Unfamiliarity
Suitability

Studying People in the Field

Starting the Research Project

Gaining Access
Gatekeeper = Someone with the formal or informal authority to control access to a field site.
Entering the Field
Presentation of self
Disclosure
Social Roles

Studying People in the Field

Being in the Field

Learning the Ropes.

Normalizing Social Research

Normalize = How a field researcher helps field site members redefine social research from unknown and potentially threatening to something normal, comfortable and familiar.

Building Rapport and Trust.

Negotiating continuously

Deciding a degree of Involvement

Studying People in the Field

Strategies for Success in the Field

Building relationships
Performing small favors
Appearing interested and exercising selective inattention
Appearance of interest = A micro strategy to build or maintain relationships in which a researcher acts interested even when he or she is actually bored and uninterested.

Studying People in the Field

Strategies for Success in the Field

Being an earnest novice
Avoiding Conflicts
Adopting an Attitude of Strangeness
Attitude of Strangeness = A perspective in which the field researcher questions and notices ordinary details by looking at the ordinary through the eyes of a stranger.

Studying People in the Field

Observing and Collecting Data

The Researcher is a Data Collection Instrument
What to Observe
Physical appearance
People and their behavior

People’s actions

The context in which events occur

Exactly what people say

When “Nothing” Happens.

Studying People in the Field

Observing and Collecting Data

Sampling
observations from all possible times, locations, people, situations, types of events, or contexts of interest.
sample three types of field site events: routine, special, and unanticipated.

Routine

Special

Unanticipated

Studying People in the Field

Observing and Collecting Data

Becoming a Skillful Note-Taker
Types of Notes

Jotted notes = Optional very short notes of a few words written very inconspicuously in the field site that are only to trigger memory later.

Supplements

How to take notes

Maps and diagrams

Recordings to Supplement Memory.

Studying People in the Field

Interviewing in Field Research

Types of Questions in Field Interviews
Descriptive Questions
Structural Questions
Contrast Questions
Informant = A member in a field site with whom a researcher develops a relationship, and who tells the researcher many details about life in the field state.

Studying People in the Field

Leaving the Field

exiting can be disruptive or emotionally painful
depends on specifics of the field setting and relationships developed

Writing the Field Research Report

start to think about what will appear in a report while still gathering data
book-length or long descriptive articles

Ethics and the Field Researcher

Privacy is the most common ethical issue.
Confidentiality must be maintained.
Personal risk potential.

Focus Groups

Focus Group = A qualitative research technique that involves informal group interviews about a topic.
Advantages

Limitations

Focus Groups

Advantages:
fast, easy to do, and inexpensive
natural setting helps to increase external validity
provides new insights and ideas for questions and answer categories
gives a window into how people naturally discuss topics
allows participants to query one another and explain their answers to each others
encourages open expression among members of marginalized social groups
helps people feel empowered by a group setting

Focus Groups

Limitations
cannot generalize discussion outcomes to large, diverse population
creates group “polarization effect”
limited to discussing one or a few topics per session
moderator may unknowingly limit full, open, and free expression
participants tend to produce fewer ideas than in individual interviews
large quantity of results can be difficult to analyze
rarely report all details of study design/procedure
difficult to reconcile differences between responses given by individual-only interview and those from a focus group