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Chapter 2: Sociological Inquiry

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Notes:

In-depth Interviews

Ability to explore different angles and levels

Focuses on individuals and transcribing field notes can be time-consuming

Participant Observation

Unrestricting access to observe social behavior

Difficult to document details and can potentially be unethical

Focus Groups

Ease of implementation and quick results

Groupthink can occur and moderators can skew the results

Content Analysis

Does not involve human subjects and cost-effective

Researchers must “read between the lines”

in-depth interview, a one-on-one open-ended method that probes for deeper meaning and understanding of the responses of the interviewee,

participation observation, also called participant observation, a method in which the researcher takes part in the social phenomenon being studied. 

ethnography, a descriptive account of social life and culture in a particular social system derived from the researcher being embedded over time within a group, organization, or community.

focus group, a small group interview or guided discussion using a moderator to gain insight into the participants’ opinions on specific topics 

groupthink, the tendency of group members to yield to the desire for consensus rather than expressing individual or alternative ideas.

content analysis, a systematic method of assigning codes to text, video, music, and other media to analyze and infer patterns. 

Sustainability, the idea that current and future generations should have equal or greater access to social, economic, and environmental resources

I would like to learn what people in the U.S. did while they were on lockdown in 2020-2021. People all over the country were at home so it\’s interesting to see what they did. I would send out a survey to get people\’s responses asking them what they spent their time on while outside places were on lockdown.