Collecting Data Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Collecting Data - Essay ExampleIt is not unusual for ethnographers to live in the nuance for months or even years. The middle stages of the ethnographic method involve gaining informants, using them to gain yet more informants in a chaining process, and gathering of data in the form of observational transcripts and interview recordings. Data epitome and theory development come at the end, though theories may emerge from ethnic immersion and theory-articulation by members of the culture. However, the ethnographic researcher strives to avoid theoretical preconceptions and instead to induce theory from the perspectives of the members of the culture and from observation. The researcher may seek validation of induced theories by going back to members of the culture for their reactionEthnography is a form of research focusing on the sociology of meaning through close field observation of sociocultural phenomena. Typically, the ethnographer focuses on a community (not necessarily geogr aphic, considering also work, leisure, and other communities), selecting informants who are known to have an overview of the activities of the community. such(prenominal) informants are asked to identify other informants representative of the community, using chain sampling to obtain a fecundation of informants in all empirical areas of investigation. Informants are interviewed multiple times, using information from previous informants to elicit clarification and deeper responses upon re-interview. This process is intended to reveal common cultural understandings related to the phenomena under study. These subjective but embodied understandings on a subject (ex., stratification) are often interpreted to be more signifi buttockst than heading data (ex., income differentials). Ethnography is a qualitative research method that is used by anthropologists to describe a culture. Culture has many definitions but usually consists of origins, values, roles, and material items associated w ith a particular group of people. Ethnographic research, therefore, attempts to to the full describe a variety of aspects and norms of a cultural group to enhance understanding of the people beingness analyse.Historically, anthropologists who performed ethnographic research often would live in the community being investigated. Ethnographic research has rivet on various foreign cultures to gain understanding about native people who are unaffectionate from Western civilization. One famous anthropologist who performed this type of research was Margaret Mead. Her classic study of three New ginzo cultures explored those cultures gender characteristics and roles. By studying a variety of cultural norms, gender characteristics, and roles, this type of research can help scientists categorize nature versus nurture gender characteristics. Many ethnographic studies have documented cultural roles that challenge Western perspectives of innate gender characteristics.(1)In ethnographic studi es, the orientation of the researcher is termed etic or emic. An etic orientation is a view from an outsiders perspective. For example, if an ethnographer studied the culture of perioperative nurses and had no perioperative nursing experience, that researchers interpretations would be from an etic perspective. If a perioperative nurse studied the culture of the OR or the organization of AORN, those interpretations would be from an insiders, or emic, perspective.Ethnographic resea