Exam 10: Qualitative Field Research

Professor Milne was preparing to do qualitative interviewing in a field research project. Milne knew that you were a research methods student and asked for your advice. You told Milne:

To examine the social interactions of online role-playing gamers, a relatively social phenomena, Kyoko developed a rough outline of what to look for before setting out on observation. This outline was intended to guide, but not specifically structure the observations. Which approach did Kyoko use?

Select a topic. Describe how a complete participant and a complete observer might study that subject.

Michael is spending three months living in a commune doing participant observation in order to fully understand and document the lives of the people who reside there. What is the likely result of Michael's research?

What differentiates the case study from the extended case study model?

Your field notes should record what you know happened NOT what you think happened.

An advantage of field research is that:

Jessica is concerned with the problem of reactivity in her study of a local diet group. Which of the following is NOT one of her reactivity concerns?

Dr. Fielding is interested in the stratification system in the United States and how it is perpetuated through time. Fielding decides to examine the experiences of minority students who seek college counseling in high school. He interviews minority students in four high schools to learn whether their personal experiences tell him something about stratification in the United States. After interviewing the minority students, Fielding interviews nonminority students, school administrators, guidance counselors, teachers, parents, and social workers at the same four high schools. Fielding is probably using a/an _____ approach.

Field research typically alternates between deduction and induction.

Researchers who assume the role of the complete participant are unlikely to affect what they are studying.

One of the advantages of field research is that it raises very few ethical concerns.

The difference between just a case study and the extended case method involves:

Because the work of sociologists and journalists is different, they should not use the same interviewing techniques.

How do the data gathered in field research differ from the data gathered using surveys? How does this affect the kinds of research questions you can explore using each?

___________ is an old tradition in qualitative research based on the assumption that an objective social reality exists and can be observed and reported accurately.

Which of the following is POOR advice for recording observations in the field?

List and describe the stages researchers must go through in order to conduct a truly qualitative field interview.

In comparison to experiments and surveys, field research has:

Professor Jefferson is interested in studying the dynamics and processes of three local hospitals. Which element of social life is he studying?