SOAN 2120 Lecture 8: Field Research

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SOAN 2120
• Professor: D Walters

Document Summary

Field research involves studying people in their home or their natural environment. Field research is typically used in anthropology, and emphasizes naturalism. No statistics or mathematics are involved it is simply a collection of face-to-face interactions with people in their home environment: field research is used when other methods (i. e. , quantitative methods) are not practical. It is a much less structured study than in quantitative studies the social environment and interactions guide the study. Although mentioned within the same textbook chapter, focus groups are different than field research participants, mainly in that focus groups are utilized outside of academia. An ethnographic study (a field study) describes a culture and understands another way of life from the researcher"s perspective (stems from the interpretive school) Displays of behaviour do not give meaning instead, someone tries to figure out what is meant by behaviour. Social interaction is a process of reality construction.