Ethnographic field work including Punch in Bolivia (2002) related to developmental psychology and longitudinal/ cross-sectional research in developmental psychology.
Ethnographic field work is the primary methodology employed by anthropologists, although other disciplines such as cultural studies and sociology may also employ ethnographic methods. Ethnography involves immersion in the daily lives of a particular community of people for an extended period of time for the purpose of collecting various types of data about that community.
An ethnographer will typically choose a particular community, village, or ethnic group, request permission from the group in question to live among them for the purpose of research, and then conduct the period of research for anywhere from several months, to several years. For instance, in one famous study the ethnographer Janice Radway found a group of women in the rural Midwest who were fans of romance novels. Radway spent several years attending their book clubs, interviewing participants, and talking with them informally about why they like romance novels. Her book Reading the Romance is considered a classic of contemporary American ethnography.
Ethnography attempts to understand human cultures both through the eyes of the community themselves, as well as through the analysis and interpretation of a trained ethnographer.
Participant observation is one of the most important methods used by ethnographers. This aspect of ethnography involves careful observation of the daily life of the community. In many cases, the first stage of participant observation involves becoming proficient in the local language. This very necessary step can be pretty tricky if the language in question is not well known outside of the community, has no written form, or if the ethnographer initially lacks members of the community who are willing to teach someone the local language.
Participant observation usually requires that the researcher actively takes part in the day-to-day events of the community. If the society in question is a hunter-gatherer society, the ethnographer might accompany members of the community in foraging in the forest for eatable fruits. If the community in question is part of a youth subculture in the developed world, the ethnographer might accompany informants to a night club; indeed, the ethnographer Sarah Thornton did just that in her well-known study Club Cultures. Religious rituals, economic transactions, food preparation, child rearing, diplomacy with neighboring communities, and many other aspects of life are all part of participant observation.
Gender divisions often create problems for ethnographers. If the ethnographer is male, he may have very little or no access to the lives of the community's women and a female ethnographer may have very little access to the male life of the community. For this reason, it is not uncommon for married couples to conduct ethnographic research together.
Key informant interviews constitute a vital stage of the ethnographic process. After the ethnographer has become fluent in the community's language and has gained the trust of a sufficient number of community members, the ethnographer will proceed to conduct formal interviews with a number of different community members, often defined as informants. Typically, key informants will be interviewed numerous times over a significant period of time. Today, due to technological innovations, it is usually quite easy to make audio recordings of informant interviews, but in decades past, ethnographers in rural areas often had to rely exclusively on careful note taking. After the data collection phase is over, the ethnographer will carefully analyze and interpret the interviews as part of his or her larger body of data.
Punch (2002) used an ethnographic approach to gather qualitative data by observing and interacting with the young people from Bolivia in their classroom settings.
The study used five specially designed task-based methods to collect qualitative data in her classroom based research with children in Bolivia, for example, drawings, photographs, PRA (participatory rural appraisal) techniques, diaries and worksheets.
Punch (2002) lived with a family and stayed in the community she was studying for extended periods of time.
The study explores how young people negotiate constraints over their choices, including their rural location, parental attitudes, family background and role models.
Punch’s (2002) use of ethnographic research through observation and interaction in the classroom setting aids our understanding in developmental psychology of youth development in rural Bolivia.
The data collected in the study for example the PRA takes an emic approach to research which can be culturally biased and so the findings may not improve our understanding for all cultures in developmental psychology.
Punch’s (2002) research took an emic approach which allowed her to get closer to the culture and lifestyle of the children increasing our understanding of how they developed.
The study shows transitions are underpinned by a number of factors which highlights the importance of holistic research in developmental psychology.
A longitudinal study assesses the same group of participants repeatedly over an extended period that is usually several months or even years.
This allows the researcher t look at how behaviour/performance changes over time and developmental trends can be established.
In a way it is similar to a repeated measures design where age is the independent variable.
If you wanted to research how children relate differently to their same sex and opposite sex parents in order to research Freud’s Oedipus Complex, you could observe the same group of children several time, e.g. at age 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, (by which point they should have moved out of the phallic stage) and see whether levels of aggression shown towards the same sex parents decreases over time.
An advantage of using longitudinal research is that researchers can genuinely see and record social change over significant time periods.
One of the main disadvantages of this method is the practical issue of cost, meaning funding agencies who pay for research may be unwilling to commit to an expensive project whose results will be unknown for many years. There is also a risk of people dropping out of the study, which may skew the results.
A cross sectional study takes one moment in time and compares one group of participants with another group of participant at that time.
Participants are only tested once and the findings provide a snapshot of the differences between the behaviour of the two groups tested. It is therefore similar to an independent measures design.
Cross sectional studies are often used to look at the effect of age as an independent variable on certain key behaviours or abilities. For example, you might compare 3 year olds and 6 year olds with regard to the amount of aggressive behaviours shown towards their same sex parents.
Describe how Tsai could carry out an ethnographic study into children’s play. (2) October 2019
Explain one strength of Tsai carrying out an ethnographic study into children’s play. (2) October 2019
Describe ethnographic field work. (2) January 2020
Explain one weakness of using longitudinal research in developmental psychology. (2) January 2018
Justify one strength of the study by Punch (2002). (3) January 2020
Assess whether Punch’s (2002) research in Bolivia has furthered understanding in developmental psychology. (8) January 2019