Types of Primary Research
Primary Research: Primary research refers to any data you collect on your own.
Primary research can take many different forms, including the following:
 Surveys (both formal and informal)
 Observations and field notes (fieldwork)
 Interviews (both formal and informal)
 Social experiments
The key to primary research is being as rigorous and analytical as possible by trying to
limit variability and achieve “good data.”
Fieldwork:
Fieldwork is the hallmark of research for both sociologists and anthropologists. The
method is essentially the same for both types of researchers – working with people for
long periods of time in their natural setting. The ethnographer conducts research in the
native environment to see people and their behavior given all the real-world incentives
and constraints. (31)
Selection and Sampling:
The research questions shape the selection of a place and a people or program to study
[… the ethnographer] must decide how to sample members of the target population […]
Ethnographers typically use an informal strategy to begin fieldwork, such as starting
wherever they can slip a foot in the door. The most common technique is judgmental
sampling – that is, the ethnographers rely on their judgment to select the most appropriate
members of the subculture or unit based on their research question. […] As the study
progresses, the focus narrows to specific portions of the population under study (32).
Participant Observation:
Participant observation characterizes most ethnographic research and is crucial to
effective fieldwork. Participant observation combines participation in the lives of the
people under study with maintenance of a professional distance that allows adequate
observation and recording of data. Participant observation is immersion in a culture [... ]
It begins with a panoramic view of the community, closes in to microscopic focus on
details, and then pans out to the larger picture again – but this time with new insight into
the minute details (37). The observer takes note of social interactions, from both an etic
and emic vantage (both as an outsider and an occasional participant in those interactions)
Interviewing:
The interview is the ethnographer’s most important data gathering technique. Interviews
explain and put into larger context what the ethnographer sees and experiences […]
General interview types include structured, semistructured, informal, and retrospective
interviews […] Formally structured and semistructured interviews are verbal
approximations of a questionnaire with explicit research goals. These interviews
generally serve comparative and representative purposes – comparing responses and
putting them in the context of common group beliefs and theme […] Informal interviews
seem to be casual conversations, but whereas structured interviews have an explicit
agenda, informal interviews have a specific but implicit research agenda. The researcher
uses informal approaches to discover the categories of meaning in a culture. Informal
interviews are useful throughout an ethnographic study in discovering what people think
and how one person’s perceptions compare with another’s(38).
Specific Survey Questions
Survey questions allow the researcher to assemble a collection of written response to a set
question, which can then be analyzed for patterns and trends.
Field Experiment
This is where researchers introduce a variable into a real-world situation and measure the
effects of that variable on individual’s reactions.
Anthropological Study: An anthropologist studies the artifacts of a culture as a way of
understanding the implicit values and contexts of that culture.
Ethical and Procedural Questions
1. Will my primary research cause harm?
2. Do I have a clear objective for my research? Why am I doing this research?
3. Do I have a clear reason for how I’ve chosen to perform this research?
4. Have I gotten approval from all the appropriate sources for my primary research
(administration, teachers, parents, etc.)?
5. Have my questions been vetted for accuracy?
6. If I am working on a social experiment have I minimized the variables? What is
my control?
7. How will I collect and analyze my data? Will I use a video camera or tape
recorder for interviews?
8. What or who will be my checks and balances?