SOCI 331 Study Guide - Final Guide: Participant Observation, Inductive Reasoning, Focus Group
Document Summary
Qualitative methods: methods, such as participant observation, intensive interviewing, and focus groups, that are designed to capture social life as participants experience it rather than in categories predetermined by the researcher. These methods typically involve exploratory research questions, inductive reasoning, an orientation to social context, and a focus on human subjectivity and the meanings attached by participants to events and to their lives. Field research: research in which natural social processes are studied as they happen and left relatively undisturbed. Participant observation: a qualitative method for gathering data that involves developing a sustained relationship with people while they go about their normal activates. Complete observation: a role in participant observation in which the researcher does not participate in group activities and is publicly defined as a researcher. Reactive effects: the changes in an individual or group behavior that are due to being observed or otherwise studied.
