They conducted in-depth interviews with 48 men and 48 women who identified as non-heterosexual. (1996), in a study of non-heterosexual relationships, probed the meaning of 'family' for the non-heterosexual participants in their research. The meaning that a topic has for the participants is, therefore, far more important than the researcher's perspective.īenjamin Bowling (1998), for example, found that, despite increased policing in the area of the city he was studying, black people's experiences revealed that they were still at risk from racist attacks. Phenomenological research is particularly concerned to present the topic under study in the participants' terms. Thus, Eliasoph attempted to explore how apathy was constructed as a public statement in the United States. Despite the importance of democracy, ordinary American citizens avoid appearing to care about politics. She found that there had been no attempt to study the sociological nature of apathy. Nina Eliasoph (1998) also identified a gap in sociological research. Power relationships between women had also largely been neglected by feminist studies on 'the family'. For example, Cotterill (1994) chose to study the relationship between mothers and daughters-in-law as this is a topic that the sociology of the family had neglected. Therefore, the research process begins with a review of the existing literature and the identification of gaps in existing knowledge. Phenomenological approaches have some core common characteristics but are far less formulaic.Īs in all research, phenomenologists are concerned to engage with the findings of research in related areas. Positivists do not deviate much from the core principles of operationalising concepts, systematically collecting data to test hypotheses, usually via a form of multivariate statistical analysis, with the aim of generalising from the results.
Phenomenological social science is much more varied than positivist approaches to social research. Social Research Glossary About Researching the Real WorldĬontact © Lee Harvey 2012–2022 Page updatedĬitation reference: Harvey, L., 2012–2022, Researchin g the Real World, available at /methodologyĢ.3.2 Elements of the Phenomenological ApproachĢ.3.2.1 Reviewing existing theory and identifying gapsĢ.3.2.5 Conceptualising the interpretation Surveys Experiments Ethics Research outcomes Basics Orientation Observation In-depth interviews Document analysis and semiology Conversation and discourse analysis Secondary Data