Ethnography Practice Exam Flashcards

This set of 150 flashcards covers a comprehensive lecture on ethnography, including its history in anthropology and sociology, practical methods, types of observation and writing, its application in cognitive psychology, and the ethical considerations and evaluations associated with ethnographic research.

What is the primary definition of ethnography provided in the lecture?

A description of some aspects of a community or culture; a methodology, a set of methods, and a product.

How does Charmaz (2014) define the process of an ethnography?

It involves recording the life of a particular group and entails sustained participation and observation in their milieu, community, or social world.

According to Hammersley & Atkinson (2007), where are people’s actions primarily studied in ethnographic work?

In everyday contexts, rather than under conditions created by the researcher.

What is a key feature of data collection in ethnography according to Hammersley & Atkinson (2007)?

Data are gathered from a range of sources and collection is, for the most part, relatively ‘unstructured’.

What is the scale of focus in ethnographic study mentioned by Hammersley & Atkinson (2007)?

Small-scale to facilitate in-depth study.

In ethnographic data analysis, what three aspects of human actions are interpreted in context?

Meaning, functions, and consequences.

When did ethnography emerge as the central methodology of anthropology?

In the late 19th century.

How does ethnography contrast with ethnology?

Ethnography involves empirical work, whereas ethnology involves historical and comparative analysis.

Which 1922 book by Bronisław Malinowski is synonymous with the emergence of social anthropology?

Argonauts of the Western Pacific.

Where did Bronisław Malinowski conduct his famous ethnographic study?

Trobriand Islands, Melanesia.

What was Bronisław Malinowski’s stated goal regarding ‘the native’s point of view’?

‘To grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realize his version of his world’.

What is the first aim of ‘scientific’ fieldwork according to Malinowski?

To describe the customs, traditions, institutions, structure, and the skeleton of the tribe (what people say they do).

What does Malinowski mean by giving the tribe ‘flesh and blood’?

Describing how daily life is actually carried out, known as the ‘imponderabilia of actual life’ (how they do it).

What is the third aim of ‘scientific’ fieldwork as identified by Malinowski?

To record typical ways of thinking and feeling associated with the institutions and culture.

Which sociological school was famous for applying anthropological methods to urban environments?

The Chicago School.

What did Robert Park (1927) mean by getting the ‘seat of your pants dirty in real research’?

Engaging in physical, on-site immersion in diverse social settings like luxury hotels, flophouses, and slums.

What was the subject of Laud Humphreys' 1968 study?

Homosexual sexual encounters in public toilets, also known as ‘tea-rooming’.

What did Laud Humphreys find regarding the participants in his study?

They were from a diverse range of backgrounds and identities, questioning existing stereotypes.

Which French sociologist studied a boxing gym in Chicago's South Side?

Loïc Wacquant.

What term did Loïc Wacquant use to describe an ethnography capable of capturing ‘the taste and ache of action’?

Carnal sociology.

What are the four main aspects of doing ethnography?

1. Planning and design (starting out), 2. Fieldwork, 3. Analysis, 4. Writing up.

Why is ethnography considered underpinned by the logic of abduction?

It creates new understanding from the data rather than using data to test an existing theory.

What is a ‘foreshadowed problem’ in the context of ethnography?

The initial guiding theoretical problem or topic of interest an ethnographer develops before setting out, rather than a clear research question.

Who described fieldwork as ‘free association and free passage’?

Judith Oakely.

What does the term ‘accidental sagacity’ (Giabiconi, 2013) relate to in ethnography?

Serendipity, or the wisdom to know what to make of unexpected findings.

According to Wolcott (2005), what reveals the ‘essence of fieldwork’?

Intent rather than location.

What are the three essential personal attributes for fieldwork mentioned by Wolcott (2005)?

1. Reciprocity, 2. A tolerance for ambiguity, 3. Personal determination and faith in oneself.

Who authored the ethnographic book ‘In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio’?

Philippe Bourgois.

Why is gaining access considered an ongoing process in ethnography?

Access has to be negotiated and re-negotiated with different people and groups throughout the research.

Who are ‘gatekeepers’ in ethnographic research?

Individuals who control access to a community or social world.

How does Pink (2009) describe the research field in terms of human senses?

As a ‘sensory field’.

What is the potential ethical risk regarding friendships formed in the field (Coffey, 1999)?

The potential for the researcher to exploit those friendships.

What are the four roles in sociological field observations identified by Gold (1958)?

1. Complete participant, 2. Participant as observer, 3. Observer as participant, 4. Complete observer.

What are the three types of observation mentioned in the lecture?

1. Descriptive, 2. Focussed, 3. Selective.

What three categories should an ethnographer observe?

The physical environment, participants in detail, and interactions.

What did Clifford Geertz (1993) mean by ‘inscribing’ social discourse?

Writing it down to turn a passing event into an account.

According to Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw, what are ‘head notes’?

Mental notes kept in the researcher's mind.

What are ‘jottings’ in ethnographic fieldwork?

Hand-written brief notes made during or immediately after observation.

What are ‘full notes’ in the context of writing fieldnotes?

Typed, detailed accounts of observations and interactions.

What is the purpose of ‘analytic memos’?

To record the researcher's thoughts, reflections, and emerging interpretations during the data collection process.

Other than participant observation, what are three other data collection methods used in ethnography?

Interviews, focus groups, and surveys.

What term did Geertz (1993) use to describe the goal of ethnographic analysis?

‘Thick description’.

How do data collection and analysis relate in ethnography?

They are not conceived of as two separate phases but occur simultaneously.

Which classic 1965 ethnographic study led to the development of Grounded Theorizing?

The study of death and dying in the San Francisco area by Glaser and Strauss.

What did Glaser and Strauss introduce to ethnographic analysis?

A formal coding system called ‘Grounded Theorizing’.

What did John Van Maanen (2011) call the three forms of cultural representation in ethnography?

1. Realist tales, 2. Confessional tales, 3. Impressionist tales.

What characterizes a ‘realist tale’ in ethnographic writing?

A common form focused on the description of a community and their cultural practices.

What characterizes a ‘confessional tale’ in ethnographic writing?

A highly personalized and self-absorbed style of reporting.

What characterizes an ‘impressionist tale’ in ethnographic writing?

A figurative and personal style using ‘dramatic recall’ to tell a story.

What are three contemporary forms of ethnography that move beyond traditional participant observation?

Visual ethnography, virtual ethnography, and autoethnography.

How is visual ethnography defined?

The employment of visual media for research and representation, and the incorporation of a visual perspective in mainstream ethnography.

What is virtual ethnography?

Using virtual methods to conduct research on virtual communities.

Who authored the virtual ethnography ‘Coming of Age in Second Life’?

Tom Boellstorff.

What is the definition of autoethnography according to Ellis et al. (2011)?

An approach that seeks to describe and systematically analyse personal experience in order to understand cultural experience.

What boundary can autoethnography blur?

The boundary between scientific and literary genres of writing.

According to Abigail Stewart (2003), how does ethnography help psychology regarding universalism?

It helps avoid problematic universalism by focusing on the particular experiences of women, people of color, and those from different cultures.

How does ethnography permit ‘contextual control’ in psychology?

By explicitly incorporating culture and history as variables in human behavior.

Who developed cognitive ethnography?

Edwin Hutchins.

What specific field did Edwin Hutchins investigate in the 1980s to develop cognitive ethnography?

Naval navigation.

How does cognitive psychology traditionally study ‘cognitive events’?

In controlled, laboratory settings via ‘operationalization’.

What is a criticism of laboratory-based cognitive psychology according to the lecture?

It may create artificial cognitive events (experimental artifacts) that have no relation to the everyday world.

According to the laboratory perspective, what are the features of cognition?

Common, controlled, tidy, generalizable, replicable, explanatory, and pure.

According to the everyday perspective, what are the features of cognition?

Uncommon, ‘in the wild’, ecological, rich meta-cognition, actor-defined, and involves familiar tasks.

What is the focus of cognitive ethnography according to Hutchins (1995)?

How actions and processes are achieved through a careful examination of small events.

Cognitive ethnography challenges the assumption that cognition can be studied independent of which factors?

Environment, culture, social interaction, communication, and the body.

What does cognitive ethnography use ‘wider ethnography’ for?

As a source of knowledge about what is being done, what resources are available, and what conventions are used.

What is ‘The BIG problem’ identified in the lecture regarding everyday activities?

We have learned to systematically not pay attention to the interesting details of the organization of activities.

What are two manifestations of the problem of not paying attention to everyday life?

We think everyday life is routine/uninteresting, and we fill in gaps in visual scenes.

What term did Edwin Hutchins use in 1984 before it became ‘cognitive ethnography’?

Naturally situated cognition.

What material artifact did naval navigators use to compute a ship’s speed?

A three-scale nomogram.

Why was the three-scale nomogram effective according to Hutchins?

It harnessed human skills in pattern matching and the manipulation of physical objects.

In addition to being ‘naturally situated’, what two other descriptors did Hutchins use for cognition?

Materially and socially distributed.

What did Kirsch & Maglio (1995) find regarding expert Tetris players?

They physically rotate zoids as an epistemic action to see if they fit, rather than just mentally rotating them.

What is the difference between pragmatic action and epistemic action in Tetris?

Pragmatic action moves the player closer to a physical goal; epistemic action is performed to improve cognition/information processing.

Why is hospital wayfinding a subject for cognitive ethnography?

It is notoriously difficult and laboratory/VR settings do not capture its social and embodied nature.

What are three precise observational methods used in contemporary cognitive ethnography?

Photographs, videos, and mobile eye-tracking.

What does it mean for ethnographic data to be ‘multi-modal’?

It includes multiple modes like speech, gaze, and gesture.

What does it mean for ethnographic data to be ‘multi-party’?

It involves interactions between humans, artifacts, and the environment.

What does it mean for ethnographic data to be ‘multi-scalar’?

It involves observations at multiple time scales, from seconds to long-term cultural settings.

Which project aims to use a Wittgensteinian descriptive process to solve problems in cognitive science?

The ‘Wittgenstein and Cognition’ project.

What are two contributions of cognitive ethnography to the human cognitive system?

It improves understanding of cognitive ecology and provides an improved functional specification.

How does cognitive ethnography assist experimental studies?

It informs their design by documenting how cognition is distributed across space, time, and society.

What does reflection in ethnography involve?

Reflecting on our practices and being honest about our limitations, personal biography, and institutional influences.

List four key ethical issues in ethnography.

Consent, harm, conflicts of interest, and data security.

What was the major ethical failure in Laud Humphreys' Tearoom Trade study?

He did not gain informed consent and tracked participants using licence plate numbers.

Who wrote the controversial 2014 book ‘On the Run’?

Alice Goffman.

What were the criticisms leveled against Alice Goffman’s ‘On the Run’?

Alleged factual inaccuracy, alleged felonious conduct, and exoticization.

How does ethnography increase ‘demographic legitimacy’?

By giving a voice to otherwise unheard groups.

What is the relationship between researcher and tool in ethnography?

The researchers are part of the world they study; they are not detached research tools.

What is the role of ‘imponderabilia of actual life’ in Malinowski's theory?

It represents the ‘flesh and blood’ of ethnographic study—how life is actually lived.

How does Loïc Wacquant's boxing study model a ‘carnal sociology’?

By the researcher immersing themselves as a participant to experience the ‘taste and ache’ of the action.

What logic does ethnography use to create new understanding from data?

The logic of abduction.

What did Judith Oakely mean by ‘free passage’?

The researcher's ability to move through the social field during fieldwork.

What does the ‘accidental sagacity’ of serendipity require from the researcher?

The wisdom to know what to make of unexpected findings.

In the context of fieldwork, what is ‘reciprocity’?

The mutual exchange of benefits or favors between the researcher and participants.

What does Philippe Bourgois' book ‘In Search of Respect’ study?

Crack selling in El Barrio.

Why does access in ethnography need to be re-negotiated?

Because relationships with individuals and groups develop and change over time.

What is an ‘insider ethnography’?

An ethnography conducted by a researcher who is already a member of the group they are studying.

How does a ‘complete participant’ role differ from a ‘complete observer’?

A complete participant is fully immersed and hidden as a researcher; a complete observer does not interact with the participants at all.

What is the focus of ‘selective observation’?

Focusing on specific attributes or types of activities after more general observations.