|
Answer
|
Hint
|
|
Jason Ditton (1977)
|
This sociologist, while studying theft among bread deliverymen using covert participant observation, had to use toilets as a place for recording his observations, which eventually aroused suspicion.
|
|
William Whyte (1955)
|
This sociologist's study of 'Street Corner Society' used semi-overt observation, as he revealed his real purpose to a key member of the group, Doc, but not to others: -He noted that spending a longer and longer time with his group, he stated, 'I started as a non-participating observer and ended as a non-observing participator'. -His study took 4 years to complete. -He recognised that his method was to some extent unique to him alone, due to his own personal skills and characteristics. -After his research, he found that when he returned to Harvard University, he was tongue-tied and unable to communicate with his fellow academics. These problems can be made worse if the research is conducted on and off over a period of time, with multiple 'crossings' between the 2 worlds. |
|
Ann Oakley (1982)
|
This Feminist sociologist admits that, as a mother herself, she found it difficult, when conducting an unstructured interview, to remain detached and neutral whilst interviewing other women about maternity and childbirth.
|
|
Laud Humphreys (1970)
|
This sociologist studied gay men's sexual encounters in public toilets (tea-rooming or cottaging): -He noted there is only one way to observe secretive behaviour and that is to, 'pretend to be in the same boat with those engaging in it'. -If they knew they were being observed, they would change or conceal their behaviour and so the main advantage of observation - that it preserves the naturalness of people's behaviour - would be lost. |
|
William Labov (1973)
|
This sociologist used formal, structured interviews to study the language of Black American children: -He found that they appeared to be uncomfortable and reluctant to respond.
However, adopting a more relaxed, informal style, involving the interviewer sitting on the floor and the child being allowed to have a friend present brought a completely different response: -The children opened up and spoke freely, showing that they were competent speakers. |
|
Josephine Rich (1968)
|
This sociologist shows that when adults interview children, the child's need to please the interviewer will affect their answers: -This is an example of inequalities between interviewer and interviewee affecting the interviewee's honesty or willingness to answer. -In general, the bigger the status difference, the less valid the data. |
|
Margaret Mead (1943)
|
This cultural anthropologist's research on adolescents in Samoa in the western Pacific has been criticised on the grounds that she couldn't speak the language and so was unable to spot that the girls she interviewed had deliberately misled her: -This is an example of where a cultural gap has meant that interviewers can't tell when they are being lied to. |
|
Sarah Thornton (1995)
|
This sociologist used covert observation in her study of the clubbing and rave scene: -She first had to gain entry to a group, through winning their trust and acceptance. She did this by making friends with a key individual, Kate. -She found her age and nationality a barrier, stating 'I began my research when I was 23 and slowly aged out of the peer group I was studying. Also, as a Canadian investigating British clubs and raves, I was quite literally a stranger in a strange land'. -She was met with suspicion at first, with Kate's brother stating, 'How do you know she won't sell this to the Daily Mirror?'. |
|
|
Answer
|
Hint
|
|
James Nazroo (1997)
|
The interviews for this sociologist's survey of the health of Britain's minority ethnic groups were carried out in the language of the interviewee's choice (by using interviewers of the same ethnic group who spoke the same language): -This technique was used to attempt to improve the chances of obtaining valid data. |
|
Dobash & Dobash (1980)
|
These sociologists used unstructured interviews to study domestic violence (a sensitive topic): -The empathy and encouragement of the interviewer will help the interviewee feel comfortable discussing difficult or personal subjects such as abuse. |
|
Maurice Punch (1979)
|
In this sociologist's study of the Amsterdam police, he found that in striving to be accepted by the tightly-knit patrol group he was studying with participant observation, he over-identified with them, even acting as a 'policeman' himself - chasing and holding suspects, searching houses, cars and people, and shouting at people who abused his police 'colleagues': -This is an example of becoming over-involved in a group being studied.
He was later told by 2 of the Amsterdam police officers that he had done his research with, that, 'When you were with us, we only let you see what we wanted you to see'. |
|
Howard Becker (1963, 1971)
|
In 1963, using participant observation, this Interactionist sociologist undertook a study of jazz musicians as a professional group: -The research led him to write extensively about drug use and he put off publishing it for over a decade until 1963, when the political climate in the US had improved as he did not want to stereotype all jazz musicians as drug takers. -He wrote that, "deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules and sanctions to an 'offender'. The deviant one to whom the label has successfully been applied.".
In 1971, he developed an approach to improve the chances of obtaining valid data, in his interviews with 60 Chicago schoolteachers to formulate ideas of an 'ideal pupil': -He used aggression, disbelief and 'playing dumb' as ways of extracting sensitive information from them that they might not otherwise have revealed, about how they classified pupils in terms of their social class and ethnic background.
However, the success of such tactics requires the researcher to have special skills. For the same reason, this approach might also prove difficult to replicate. |
|
Field (1987)
|
This sociologist's used interviews to study pupils' experience of sex and health education in schools, with a relatively high refusal rate of 29%, mainly because of parents withholding consent.
|
|
John Howard Griffin (1959, 1962)
|
In 1959, this White American journalist used medication and sun lamp treatments to change his skin colour and 'pass' as Black. He then travelled around the Deep South of the USA, experiencing first hand the impact of White racism: -In the Deep South at that time, public amenities such as schools, cafes, hotels, transport and toilets were all racially segregated, and Black people faced discrimination in housing, jobs and political and civil rights.
In 1962, he had to abandon interviewing in favour of using participant observation: -This is an example of where ethnic inequalities between interviewer and interviewee may make interviewing very difficult. |
|
Dean & Taylor-Gooby (1992)
|
In their study of claimants' experiences of unemployment, these sociologists used unstructured tape-recorded interviews, lasting up to 90 minutes, with 80 claimants. In their words: -'Questions were not put in any set order; the wording of questions was adapted to fit the circumstances of the respondent and/or the interview situation; questions which were evidently inappropriate were omitted altogether; additional questions or prompts were used at the interviewer's discretion to clarify or develop themes as they emerged.' -This approach gives interviewees the freedom to talk in their own terms about the issues that concern them. |
|
