20090313 life histories
TRANSCRIPT
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
DATA COLLECTION METHODSLIFE HISTORIES
PRIMARY METHODS FOR DATA
COLLECTION
DIRECT OBSERVATION PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS
SUPPLEMENTAL DATA COLLECTION
METHODS/SOURCES OF DATAFOCUS GROUPSNARRATIVE INQUIRYHISTORICAL ANALYSISINTERACTION ANALYSISQUESTIONNAIRESDILEMMA ANALYSISPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTSNARRATIVE INQUIRYPHOTOS, VIDEOS AND FILMLIFE HISTORIES
SUPPLEMENTAL DATA COLLECTION
METHODS/SOURCES OF DATALIFE HISTORIES
According to Gramling & Carr (2004), they are:“Data collection strategies that detail an individual's life.“
According to Marshall & Rossman (2006), along with narratives, they are:“methods that gather, analyze and interpret the stories people tell about their lives.“
LIFE HISTORIES
People live “storied” lives
Telling/retelling it
Understand/create a sense of themselves
ADVANTAGES They help audiences obtain first-hand information
about a culture or era in history. They emphasise on how individuals construct meaning
in societies and on how they deal with societies, not the other way round.
They can focus on critical/fateful moments. Particularly helpful in defining socialization and in
studying acculturation and socialization in societies or professions. (Marshall & Rossman, 2006, p. 116)
Useful to analyze cultural changes, cultural norms and transgressions, and to obtain insights into cultures.
Adds depth and illustration to studies. Fertile source of testable hypotheses useful for
subsequent studies.
Jones (1983) first criterion for Life Histories
1. Individual seen as a member of a culture.
Jones (1983) second criterion for Life Histories
2. The method should account for significant role others play in transmitting defined social knowledge.
Jones (1983) third criterion for Life Histories
3. Assumptions of the cultural world should be analyzed and described as they are revealed in rules and codes of conduct and myths and rituals.
Jones (1983) fourth criterion for Life Histories
4. Focus on the experience of an individual’s development over time to capture “processual development”.
Jones (1983) fifth criterion for Life Histories
5. The cultural world being studied should be continuously related to the individual’s story.
DISADVANTAGES
Makes generalizations difficult.
There are limited principles to choose participants
Guided by very few concepts of analysis.
REFERENCES Inside Installations. (2006). Inside Qualitative Research. [Review].
Retrieved on March 12, 2009 from http://www.inside-installations.org/OCMT/mydocs/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Booksummary_Designing_Qualitative_Research_SMAK_2.pdf.
Gramling, L. F. & Carr R. L. (2004). Lifelines: a life history methodology. [Abstract] Nursing research, 53 (3) Retrieved on Mrach 12, 2009 from http://www.nursingresearchonline.com/pt/re/nnr/abstract.00006199-200405000-00008.htm;jsessionid=J64JynJCvHZp92F3vp2nHhzyWFhvTP2js5Jtwv31tMt2n5hG1qTL!-2049359858!181195628!8091!-1.
Marschall C. & Rossman G (2006). Inside Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks (CA), USA: SAGE Publications. Retrieved on March 12, 2009 from http://books.google.com.co/books?id=Wt3Sn_w0JC0C&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq="life+histories"+action+research&source=bl&ots=ppR-t6NPQL&sig=mdm5_CFk5ivezvhK0fa4Wj8G9oo&hl=es&ei=Jwe3SaWuA-HAtgemlem6CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA116,M1