Chapter 10: Field Research: Welcome to my World §

(F) Day of the week: Friday Class: IS303 Created Time: February 19, 2021 9:32 PM Database: Class Notes Database Date: February 19, 2021 9:32 PM Days Till Date: Passed Last Edited Time: June 9, 2021 10:38 AM

1. Location, Location, Location… and More §

• In order to enter the natural setting of some social phenomenon, the researcher have to face access problem. Therefore, to successfully entry, the researcher need to do some background research about that specific place.
• The researcher need assistance of a gatekeepers, who are people who can give the researcher legitimate access to the field.
• Field research could cause reactivity effects - the change in individual’s or the group’s behaviors that is due to a researcher’s presence

2. Levels of Involvement §

• The researcher need to choose level of involvement when they conduct a field research
• There are 4 types of involvements
  • Complete observer
  • Observer as participant
  • Participant as observer
  • Complete participant
  

2.1. Complete observer §

• Complete observer: researchers minimize their immersion in the social phenomenon being investigated.
• It is done by 2 ways hidden observation and simple detachment
  • Hidden observation: for example: watching children play through a two-ways mirror
  • Simple detachment: for example: observing hospital emergency room behaviors by sitting in the waiting area
• Advantages:
  • Able to keep reactivity effects to a minimum
  • Able to maintain objectivity and limiting the chance of the researcher “going native”- losing objectivity by over-identifying with the research subject
• Disadvantages:
  • limits the amount if insight or understanding that can be achieved by the researcher
  • raise ethical dilemmas (informed consent)

2.2. Observer as participant §

• Observer as participant: acknowledges her or his research agenda and participates to a limited degree in the field.
• Advantages
  • more ethically defensible
• Disadvantage
  • strain the field interaction
  • limit or superfine the insight
  • encounter stronger reactivity effects

2.3. Participant as Observer §

• Participant as observer: become fully involved with the group or setting under study and is totally open about their research agenda.
• Advantages
  • build trust
• Disadvantages
  • encourage reactivity effect

2.4. Complete Participant §

• Complete participant: researchers act as complete participants.
• Covert research: letting research subjects see them as participants not as researchers
• Advantages
  • can gain access to controversial or illicit research setting
  • lessening reactivity effects
• Disadvantages
  • runs the risk of “going native” more than other level of involvement
  • ethical issue

3. Field Research Tasks §

• In order to do field research, there are some task required to perform by the researcher, which are:
  • Thick descriptions: highly detailed accounts of what the researcher has observed or experienced in the field
  • How to researchers start doing field research/ the step
    • Examine the social world
    • Aligned with inductive path
    • Develop ground theory
    • Ongoing, dynamic approach to data analysis

7. Sampling issues in field research §

There are 4 non-probability strategies worthy of careful consideration: quota sampling, snowball sampling, theoretical sampling and deviant sampling.

1. Quota sampling: quota sampling is use when groups or social process being studied have clearly defined categories of participants or case.
2. Snowball sampling: snowball sampling is when researcher fined an initial contact and then ask if that contact can provide leads for other possible participants.
3. Theoretical sampling: theoretical sampling is when research decides the next sampling move based on what the field notes indicate are important considerations. This sampling strategy continues until a saturation point is met where a new location or interview does not offer any new information.
4. Deviant case sampling: This strategy intentionally uses cases or participants that are exceptions to regular pattern as way to learn more about those pattern. Ex: a study of a neighborhood bar, the researcher would interview the non-regular of that place.

But no matter what strategy you use, the field researcher must always be considering whether or not the locations selected for observation are representative of the larger research population.

8. The validity of field research §

To better understand your subject is to go to your research subject and spending time with their terrain. Making careful sampling decision, the field research may be able to make some informed generalizations. But the accuracy of it can be directly tested by researcher can directly address the generalizability of a given set of research finding.