Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

FIELD RESEARCH AND FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH

EXPANSION BOX 6

The Ideal Field Research Informant

1. The person who is totally familiar with the culture
   and is in position to witness significant events makes
   a good informant. He or she lives and breathes the
   culture and engages in routines in the setting with-
   out thinking about them. The individual is not a
   novice but has years of intimate experience in the
   culture.


2. The individual is currently involved in the field. For-
   mer members who have reflected on the field may
   provide useful insights, but the longer they have
   been away from direct involvement, the more likely
   it is that they have reconstructed their recollections.


3. The person can spend time with the researcher. Inter-
   viewing may take many hours, and some members
   are simply not available for extensive interviewing.


4. Nonanalytic individuals make better informants.
   A nonanalytic informant is familiar with and uses
   native folk theory or pragmatic common sense. This
   is in contrast to the analytic member who preana-
   lyzes the setting using categories from the media
   or education. Even members educated in the social
   sciences can learn to respond in a nonanalytic man-
   ner but only if they set aside their education and use
   the member perspective.

do you call a deputy sheriff?” (The answer is a

“county Mountie.”)

You use a structural question after spending

time in the field and starting to analyze data, espe-

cially with a domain analysis. It begins after you

organize specific field events, situations, and con-

versations into categories. For example, your

observations of a highway truck-stop restaurant

revealed that the employees informally classify

customers who patronize the truck stop. In a pre-

liminary analysis, you create a conceptual category,

“kinds of customers” and then you talk to members

using structural questions to verify types.

One way to pose a structural question is to ask

the members whether a category includes elements

in addition to those you already have identified. You

might ask, “Are there any types of customers other

than regulars, greasers, pit stoppers, and long

haulers?” In addition, you ask for confirmation: “Is

a greaser a type of customer that you serve?” “Would

you call a customer who... a greaser?” “Would a

pit stopper ever eat a three-course dinner?”

The contrast question builds on the analysis

that you verified by structural questions. Contrast

questions focus on similarities or differences

between elements in categories or between cate-

gories that you ask members to verify: “You seem

to have a number of different kinds of customers

come in here. I’ve heard you call some customers

‘regulars’ and others ‘pit stoppers.’ How are a reg-

ular and a pit stopper alike?” or “Is the difference

between a long hauler and a greaser that the greaser

doesn’t tip?” or “Two types of customers just stop

to use the restroom—entire families and a lone

male. Do you call both pit stoppers?”

Informants.An informant in field research is a

member with whom a field researcher develops a

relationship and who tells about, or informs on, the

field.^52 The ideal informant has four characteristics

(see Expansion Box 6, The Ideal Field Research

Informant).

You may interview several types of inform-

ants. Contrasting types who provide useful per-

spectives include rookies and old-timers; people in

the center of events and those on the fringes of

activity; people who recently changed status (e.g.,

through promotion) and those who are static; frus-

trated or needy people and happy or secure people;

and the leader in charge and the subordinate who

Number of
Questions

Time in the Field

Descriptive Structural Contrast

FIGURE 6 Types of Questions in Field
Research Interviews