Ethnography

Ethnography (1)

• Writing about the way of life, or culture, of social groups.

• It involves the researcher inserting themselves into the natural setting of the social group being studied and participating and observing in their daily activities.

Ethnography (2)

• The purpose is to describe this culture and lifestyle of the people being studied In a way that is possible to see it themselves and to the social context in which their behaviours occur

• The idea os to ‘tell it like it is’ to capture ordinary activities and peoples interpretations of those activities

It is about achieving ‘verstehen’ (being able to emphasise with those being studied)

Unstructured interviews (1)

In general unstructured interviews are a guided conversation: interviewer plays an active role as they manage questions.

The interviewer generally does not normally have an interview schedule, they are writes happy to follow the respondent if it is felt that this might produce useful results.

Is ethnographic because it is normally carried out in the natural setting of the respondent in which they fell most comfortable

Unstructured interviews strengths

• Qualitative interaction/relationship with the respondent which generates trust and rapport

• The central issue is what the interviewee says or thinks

• Very flexible because the interviewer is not restricted to a fixed set of questions. The interviewer can therefore explore and follow up interesting responses.

Unstructured interviews weakness

• They collect a lot of data, so sociologists have to be selective of which data they choose, this means they have to consciously or unconsciously select data so they could be biased

• The qualitative data is difficult to analyze and categorize because of the amount of material in the respondent's own words.

• Positivists do not like this data as it is not easy to quantify and turn into graphs, tables etc

Focus group interviews (1)

Another variation on the unstructured interview is the focus group intervene in which participants are encourage to talk to one another.

 

Involve people getting together to discuss an issue rather than simply giving an answer to a question.

 

Involve sociologists introducing groups of people to an issue, the researcher relies on group dynamics to keep the group going, there is minimal interference from the sociologist

Semi structured interviews (1)

Many sociological interviews are a mic of the structured and unstructured interview.

 

They usually contain lots of closed questions in order to generate facts but also contain a few open questions.

Semi structured interviews (2)

These open questions allow the interviewer some flexibility to ask for clarification of vague answers. They can job the respondents memory

 

However the reliability of such interviews has been questioned because an interviewer might fond that some interviewees may need more probing than others, this may mean that the interview is different so they might not be strictly comparable.

Observation

Interpretivist sociologists are interested in understanding how people live their everyday lives and argue that the research method of observation is the best possible ethnographic way of understanding why people behave the way that they do - it gives a first hand insight into how people interpret the social world around them

 

• People can be observed in their natural environment

• They should see that world in much the same way that the research population do

Non participant observation (1)

Involves the researcher sitting and observing an activity such as a doctor patient interaction or a school lesson.

 

The observer is detached and overlooking, playing no active role in the activity being observed.

 

Usually this type of observation is structured In that it usually uses a coded observation schedule that directs what is to be observed.

Non participant observation (2)

• The observation is focused on particular behaviour of activity.

 

Positivists = love this type of schedule as they stress for the need of scientific data because it produces facts in the form of quantifiable data.

Non participant observation strengths

• Because the researcher is detached and therefore objective, they are less likely to take sides and be biased in the way they interpret the groups behaviour

• The researcher is not making any decisions or joining in activities, the group itself should not be influenced by the observer

Non participant observation Weaknesses

• Observer is likely to be observing artificial behaviour caused by their actual presence (demand characteristics)

• This type of observation also gives us little insight into the reason why people behave the way they do.

• Objectivity is also difficult to achieve because observers have to make value judgments about wether behaviour or activities fit particular categories on their observation schedule (how reliable is their recording)

Participant observation (1)

Is the most common type of observation and involves the sociologist immersing themself in the lifestyle of the group they wish to study.

 

The research is driven from the ‘inside’ rather than the ‘outside’

 

Participant observation involves the sociologist being ‘on the inside looking out’ because they join in with the activities of those being studied and share their experiences of social reality.

Participant observation (2)

Overt = the researcher joins in the activities of a group but some or all of the group know that the researcher is a sociologist and actively observing them 

 

• Often dependent on a gatekeeper, a person who can smoothly enter a sociologist observer into a social group

 

Fielding (2001) argues that gatekeepers are the ‘unsung heroes of ethnography’ because they can speak to a group before hand and allay their suspicions and validate the researcher.

 

Covert = the researcher inserts themselves into a group and conceals the fact that they are doing research - they pretend to be an authentic member of the group.

Participant observation (3)

The choice of wether to use overt or cover observation is often shaped by the social characteristics of the research team

 

The aim of participant observation is to understand what is happiness from the point of view for those involved and to understand the meaning that they give to their situation

 

• The research is ethnographic as it is carried our in a naturalistic environment

Participant observation strengths

• The researcher -observer sees things through the eyes and actions of the people in the group. Life is therefore seen from the same perspective of the group, the sociologist experiences verstehen, meaning the sociologist can empathise with the group which realists in high validity

• Interpretivist sociologists often point out that what people say and what they actually do are very different, people lie and mislead in questionnaire's and interviews. In observational studies the sociologist cab see what people really do and the truth is more likely to be recorded.

Participant observation weaknesses

• Especially with overt observation there is the researcher effect. This means that the presence of the researcher may result in the group acting less naturally because they are aware that they are being observed

• Some observers get to close or attached to the group and therefore observations become bias, the observer becomes too sympathetic to the group so the researcher looses objectivity and identifies to close with the group