CRIM 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Thick Description, Nomothetic, Participant Observation

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRIM 321
• Professor: Jaqueline Faubert

Document Summary

Crim321 chapter 1: an invitation to qualitative research. Study of things in their natural setting. Direct experience and interaction in real-world environments. More difficult to define than to identify. Makes up a researcher"s view of social reality. Social meaning people attribute to their experiences, circumstances, and situations. Documenting real events bounded in time and circumstance. Understand how people give meaning to their lives and experiences. Understanding relationship between a particular scene and its wider social environment. 3 main approaches in qualitative resesarch: participant observation, interviewing, archival research & documents. Examines how ontological and epistemological perspectives impact methodology. Views research as a process rather than an event. The complementary nature of qualitative and quantitative research. Aim for detailed descriptive of particular circumstances. Using specific data to generate general theories. Uses a theory to generate a specific set of hypothesis, which are then tested. Philosophical belief system about nature of social reality. 3 major ontological positions in qualitative research: positivism, interpretive, critical.