SOC200H1 Lecture Notes - Grounded Theory, Participant Observation, Statistical Hypothesis Testing
Document Summary
Field research more typically yields qualitative data: observations not easily reduced to numbers. Field research is esp. appropriate to the study of those attitudes and behaviours best understood within their natural setting, as opposed to the somewhat artificial settings of experiments and surveys. Field research is well suited to the study of social processes over time. Several elements of social life appropriate to field research: practices, episodes, encounters, roles and social types, social and personal relationships, groups and cliques, organizations, settlements and habitats, subcultures and lifestyle. Field research offers the advantage of probing social life in its natural habitat. Ethnography: varies somewhat in its use by researchers. It generally refers to a report on social life that focuses on detailed and accurate description rather than explanation. For some it refers also to data collected in the natural settings, while for others it refers to naturalistic observations and holistic understandings of culture or subcultures.
