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The process of collecting accurate data through interviewing, questionnaires, and other methods has not always been clear. However, data collection in field settings can be done in a structured, systematic and scientific way. These authors show us how. First, they focus on the importance of finding the right questions to ask. By providing a variety of formats - triadic comparisons and rating scales for data collection, both oral and written methods - and stressing cultural relativity, Weller and Romney suggest ways to improve not only the data collected, but also the interpretation and analysis of such data. Primarily addressed to qualitative social scientists, this volume is also appropriate for anyone who wants to study attitudes and beliefs. In particular, it is an ideal text for courses in anthropology, linguistics, qualitative research methods, health care, and survey research.
Presents a set of closely related techniques that facilitate the exploration and display of a wide variety of multivariate data, both categorical and continuous. Three methods of metric scaling, correspondence analysis, principal components analysis, and multiple dimensional preference scaling are explored in detail for strengths and weaknesses over a wide range of data types and research situations. "The introduction illustrates the methods with a small dataset. This approach is effective--in a few minutes, with no mathematical requirement, the reader can understand the capabilities, similarities, and differences of the methods. . . . Numerical examples facilitate learning. The authors use ...
The inside stories of workers struggling to counter violence
Qualitative research is a sociological and anthropological tradition of inquiry. Most critically, qualitative research involves sustained interaction with the people being studied in their own language, and on their own turf. To see qualitative research as strictly disengaged from any form of counting is to miss the point that its basic strategy depends on the reconciliation of diverse research tactics. It is our view that qualitative research can be performed as social science. Understanding the workings of a scientific endeavor, whether it is of the natural or social variety, entails an appreciation of its objectivity. By this convention, the objectivity of a piece of qualitative research is evaluated in terms of the reliability and validity of its observations - the two concepts to which this monograph is devoted.
The Handbook of Interview Research is the most ambitious attempt yet at examining the place of the interview in contemporary society. Interviewing is the predominant mode of research in the social sciences. It′s also the stock-in-trade of information seekers in organizations and institutions of all kinds, as well as in the mass media. Across the board, interviews provide today′s leading window on the world of experience. The Handbook offers a comprehensive examination of the interview at the cutting edge of information technology. Drawing upon leading experts from a wide range of professional disciplines, this book addresses conceptual and technical challenges that confront both academic...
Behavioral Anthropology is a unique introduction, combining an intellectual biography with an explanation of methodological principles. Each chapter deals with a specific methodological issue, such as research design, the role of theory, various strategies for measuring behavior, psychological or situational variables, samples and surveys, and both simple and complex methods of data analysis and interpretation. Graves includes a clear analysis of his distinctive approach to cross-cultural research. He explains how the behavioral anthropological approach gives focus to ethnographic study and illuminates the causes, correlates and consequences of within-group variation in behavior and in changes over time. For those interested in a behavioral and scientific approach to anthropology, this book will be a valuable reference and teaching tool.
American anthropology in the late twentieth century interrogated and depicted the worldsøof others, past and present, in subtle and incisive ways while increasingly questioning its own authority to do so. Marxist, symbolic, and structuralist thought shaped the fieldwork and conclusions of many researchers around the globe. Practicing anthropology blossomed and grew rapidly as a subdiscipline in its own right. There emerged a keener appreciation of both the history of the discipline and the histories of those studied. Archaeologists witnessed a resurgence of interest in the concept of culture. The American Anthropologist also made systematic efforts to represent the field as a whole, with bi...
Promotion of the low risk "ABC" behaviors--Abstinence, Being faithful, and Condom use--has had only limited success in Africa. This book draws on a large qualitative study affiliated with an adolescent intervention trial to examine how ABC promotion can be improved. It evaluates the MEMA kwa Vijana sexual health program, which was implemented in 62 primary schools and 18 health facilities in rural Tanzania, scrutinizing its teacher-led curriculum, peer education, youth-friendly health services, youth condom distribution, and community mobilization components. The book examines how implementing such a low-cost, large-scale program involved many compromises, including those between national po...