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7/30/2019 Biographical Research Methods
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Biographical researchmethodsJohn King
No social study that does not come back to
the problems of biography, of history, and of
their interactions within a society, hascompleted its intellectual journey.
C. Wright Mills
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Definitions
Life story
The account given by an individual about his or her life
Life history
A personal account triangulated with external sources
Narrative approach Recognises that an individuals personal account is a tightly
edited account for an intended audience
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Life histories
The life history may be the best available technique for
studying such important social psychological processesas adult socialization, the emergence of group and
organizational structure, the rise and decline of social
relationships, and the situational response of the self to
daily interactional contingencies. Denzin 1970: 257
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Life stories
A life story does not consist of an atomistic chain of
experiences, whose meaning is created at the moment
of their articulation, but is rather a process taking placesimultaneously against the backdrop of a biographical
structure of meaning, which determines the selection of
the individual episodes presented, and within the
context of the interaction with a listener.
Rosenthal (1993:63)
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A history of life histories
Dilthey (1833-1911) viewed life story as a whole, an object
complete unto itself
Developed the comprehensive method later refined by Weber
Extensively employed by Robert Park and colleagues at the
Chicago School in the study of city life during the early
C20
Fell out of favour during the late 1930s and 1940s aspositivist methods gained favour
Began to revive from the 1960s
Narrative turn in social studies through the 1990s
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Areas of study in which life history has
made a substantive contribution
(Plummer 1985)
Subjective reality of the individual
Process, ambiguity and change in everyday life
The life history, more than any other technique except
perhaps participant observation, can give meaning to the
overworked notion of process (Becker 1970: 116)
The totality of the biographical experience Individual experience as within the context of the group and
wider social framework
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Classic study
Thomas & Znaniecki ([1918-20]1958) The Polish Peasant
in Europe and America
Sought to show that the problems of the immigrant community
were due to the transition from a very different society
The authors believed that the life-record could be used to
explain the appearance of new individual attitudes and newsocial values by looking at the interplay of existing attitudes
and values
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Issues
Corroboration
Voice
Theoretical interpretation
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Criticism of biographical methods
Do not permit hypothesis testing (Becker 1970)
Offers insights but not reliable generalisations
Fails to conform to scientific standards of validity
(corresponds to truth) and reliability (achieves the
same results each time)
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Alternatives to positivistic standards of
reliability, validity and generalisability
(Hatch & Wisniewski 1995) Adequacy at the level of meaning
Aesthetic finality
Accessibility
Authenticity
Credibility
Explanatory power
Persuasiveness
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Epistemological positions
Realist position - participants can know reality and report on it
Phenomenological position - participants can know their experiences
and report on them
Constructionist position - both participants perceptions and
researchers interpretations are shaped by cultural practices
Postmodernist position - narrative conventions and the process ofwriting up research mean that different interpretations of the text
are possible
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Theoretical approaches (Miller 2000)
Realist Neo-positivist Narrative
Inductive Deductive Abductive / adductive
Grounded theory, facts
emerge from empiricalmaterial
Theory tested against
empirical material
Aim is to understand
actors unique situations
Actors views represent
reality
Actors views are
interpretations of reality
Reality structured by
interplay between
interviewee and
interviewer
Saturation and reliability
are importantValidity is important Authenticity is important
Interview effects must
be controlled
Interview effects must
be controlled
Interview situation is the
core source of
information
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Roberts, B., 2002. Biographical research, Buckingham: Open University Press.
The researchers role and reflexivity
The intention in the study of lives is to gain an
understanding of individuals life experiences withintheir socio-historical context (Roberts 2002)
Shift from subject-object relationship to viewing the
researcher as reflexive collaborator
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Dealing with taken-for-granted
assumptions
People are commonly unable to articulate their basic
assumptions even though they behave in accordance
with them (Garfinkel 1967)
This includes the researcher!
Jones (1983) suggests setting up a series of oppositions
Within narrators accounts
Between narrators accounts
Between narrators accounts and the researchers
construction of the situation
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Methodological challenges
Choosing participants
Retrospective performance; memory effects
Contextual elements are not always accessible to thenarrator
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Collecting life stories
cf. Miller, R.L., 1999. Researching Life Stories and
Family Histories, London: SAGE.
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Sampling
Opportunistic sampling
Selective sampling (Schatzman and Strauss 1973)
Each narrator is chosen to represent a certain type or group
considered to be important on conceptual grounds
Snowball sampling
Probability sampling
More often used in quantitative research, but may be usedto create conceptual categories
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Arranging interviews
Secure fully informed co-operation
Number of interviews, interview length
Agree an informal contract
Establish any off limits topics
Establish whether repondents identity will be confidential,and how confidentiality is to be maintained
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Conducting interviews
Tell your life history or the story of your life... I will sayvery little, and if I ask you any questions it will bemainly about something not clear to me, if I dontunderstand something... take it in any order you want.
Use open-ended questions
Elicit stories; probe generalizations
Avoid why questions
Follow up using respondents ordering/phrasing
Dont interrupt; do not fear pauses
Watch for consistency in answers
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Narrative interview style
Focus is on the interviewer/interviewee interaction
Ones self cant be left behind, it can only be omitted fromdiscussions and written accounts of the research process.
(Stanley & Wise 1993)Transcripts of the first interviews can be shown torespondents
Second interview is a reflexive account of the first
Concerns for ethics and closing the gap betweeninterviewer and interviewee
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Narrator control
No control
Sight and comment on transcript accuracy
Sight and comment on interpretation
Sight and comment on publication
1)Minority report
2)Veto
3)Co-authorship
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Analysing life stories
cf. Miller, R.L., 1999. Researching Life Stories and
Family Histories, London: SAGE.
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Levels of analysis
Life history reconstruction
Factual details are clarified and temporally ordered
Thematic field analysis
Sections of text can be coded into:
1. Description
2. Narration
3. ArgumentationReconstruction of biographical meaning
Hermeneutic micro-analysis
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Contextualisation:
relating the part to the whole
Scheffs (1997) part/whole ladder
Single words and gestures
Sentences
Exchanges Conversations
Relationship of the two parties
Life histories of the two parties
All relationships of their type
The structure of the host society: all relationships
The history and future of the host civilisation
The history and destiny of the human species
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Grumet (1988) in Blumenfeld-Jones (1995)
Fidelity
Fidelity rather than truth is the measure of these tales Truth: what happened in a situation
Fidelity: what it means to the teller of the tale (think howdifficult it is to write exactly what we mean!)
Is not ones fidelity to objects really a fidelity to othersand oneself about objects? (William Earle, inGrumet)
Triangular relationship between the narrator, the narrativeand its objects, and the receiver of the narrative
Narrator, narratee and the object of the narrative can agreeon the quality of fidelity
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Wengraf, T., 2000. Uncovering the general from within the particular. In P. Chamberlayne, J. Bornat, & T. Wengraf,
eds. The turn to biographical methods in social science. Psychology Press, pp. 140164.
Wengrafs diamond model
lived life (history)
context
subjectivity
told story (text)
The hermeneutic process
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Empathy I:
the inside of actions
Existential
understanding
of situations
Poetics: root
metaphors,
narrative
conventions
Alvesson, M. & Skldberg, K., 2009. Reflexive Methodology, SAGE Publications Limited.
The hermeneutic process
WHOLE
PART
PREUNDER-
STANDING
UNDER-
STANDING
Sub-interpretation
DialogueText
Pattern of
interpretation
Source criticism:
authenticity, bias,
distance,
dependence The
hermeneutics ofsuspicion
The hidden basic
question of thetext
The fusion
of horizons
Asking:
knocking at
the text
Empathy II:
interpolation,
imaginary
reconstructiona priori
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Blumenfeld Jones, D., 1995. Fidelity as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry. In J. A. Hatch & R.
Wisniewski, eds. Life history and narrative. London: Falmer Press.
Challenges for researchers
Maintaining fidelity toward
The story of a person
What that person is unable to articulate about the story and its
meanings
Attaining believability
As a reasonable portrayal of the specific story
As the story resonates with the audiences experiences
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Types of presentation
Full unabridged presentation
Prominent use of interpretative framework with life story
interspersed
Subject matter and comprehensiveness
Full life, period in a life, career
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Blumenfeld Jones, D., 1995. Fidelity as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry. In J. A. Hatch & R.Wisniewski, eds. Life history and narrative. London: Falmer Press.
Re-presentation
Not simply about reorganising the details of a story
(presentation)
The narrator is bounded by his or her purposes in telling the
story
The researcher has intentions and is reconstructing as well
Details are filtered and selected through certain values
Beliefs about what is important and what is not
Ideas about how the juxtaposition of one particular with
another will produce new understandings
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Effects of stories
Transformation of individuals by challenging the
limitations of available narratives and offering newnarratives
Bringing together individuals and constructing new
identitities
This includes the researcher and researched!