Ethnographic Study

Ethnography is a written account of the way of life of a group of people who share a culture or subculture. Ethnographic methods, first developed within anthropology, are widely used by social scientists seeking to understand human behavior in cultural context. These methods are an especially useful tool for the study of life-span human development as they provide exceptional access to people’s lived experience and its meanings to them over time. The development of ethnographic approaches involves ethical obligations and attention to what ethnographers call reflexivity, the influence of the researcher’s own presence and behavior on the research. Because it is deeply embedded in people’s daily life, ethnography enables us to appreciate multiple perspectives on events, activities, and developmental processes and to explore how cultural ...