SOAN 2120 Feb 27 - Lecture notes 7 PDF

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Field Research: ● Terminology ● Anthropology ● Naturalism ○ Observe people in small social settings over a small or large period of time. Researchers understand and interpret behaviour in cultures ● No stats, mathematics - face to face social reactions with people in their home environment ● Used when other methods are not practical ● Much less structured - social environment and interactions guide the study ● Focus groups Ethnography: ● Describe a culture and understand another way of life form your own perspective ● Displays of behaviour do not give meaning - instead, someone tries to figure out what is meant by behaviour ● The reality of members (meant or implied) Ethnomethodology ● Social interaction is a process of reality construction ● The study of commonsense Specialized and highly detailed analysis of micro-situations (transcripts, conversations, videotape). Analyze behaviour, mannerism, language ● We are all ethnomethodologists! The Field Study: ● Begin with a general topic and not a specific hypothesis ● Fun and exciting (interesting or passionate) ● Research can be very involved or uninvolved in what they study ● Small scale social research ● Group, subculture, social settings ○ Police team, sports team ● Choose a group that you can gain access to ○ Barriers: Some people do not want to be studied (homeless, criminal, deviants) Access to the group ● Gatekeeper ○ Negotiate your role ○ Build rapport (establishing trust and confidence) ○ Critical: it can be a challenge ○ Promises Informants: ● Characteristics ● Establish a key informant

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Initially, you are an outsider. You can sense rapport when members warm up to you. However, it may be difficult to maintain relationships Remember: you are always watching

Know your Role: ● Assuming your role: the researcher must know how to dress, behave, act in the host environment. Avoid offending the group- make them comfortable ● “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” This is Critical: ● Knowing your role: insider (being an insider allows you more access to the group) ● Implications ○ Attachment to the group ○ Emotional: objectivity is compromised. Can influence what you observe, even decide the document ○ Not knowing your role- Outsider (disconnection) Data: ● ● ● ● ● ●

What does the data look like? Observe and document everything (physical characteristics/surroundings/smells) Video and audio, diagrams, calenderizing Transcribing is time-consuming Where do you take notes? Accuracies depend on what is observed, remembered, what they are told by the members (lies, deception, wrong informants)

Interviewing: ● Follow-up unstructured, non-directed interviews - valuable for picking up on there (also used to establish rapport) ● Listen ● Versus quantitative interviews Issues When Conducting Field Research: ● Subjective biases can change the nature and structure of relationships ● Researchers and typical people ● Objective: Value-free and Neutral ● “Tunnel Vision” ● Consequence: Researcher dependent ● Subjective interpretations based on a limited amount of information. Other’s might come to different conclusions based on their observations ● An example *colour vision*

Final Points: 1. It is possible to draw different conclusions from objective facts 2. People view the world differently as a result of social differences, values, personal history, or even possibly genetic predispositions Implications: ● Different interpretations of behaviour can lead to different conclusions The questions you ask, the way you participate, what you chose to observe, can influence the direction of your study. Thus, the participant can sometimes have as much influence on the findings as to the subjects. Objective: provide a thorough account of the social behaviour of a group of people, or social environment Success: Debrief them, share your findings, results and conclusions Missing Data: ● Data can be missing for a variety of reasons ● N/A, not applicable ● DK: Don’t Know ● People do not want to respond ○ Sensitive questions ● Issue: are those who answered the question different from those who did not answer ○ I.e Income ● Missing data can be problematic if a large proportion of respondents are missing ● 15% is the Max missing, otherwise not viable...