Multicultural Research

Research about Diverse Groups

The recognition of demographic diversity caused some researchers to think about ways to include members of minoritized groups among the participants in various [Page 530]research studies. In the field of marketing, for example, considerable effort continues to be given to conducting focus groups that reflect the demographic diversity of a community. This desire to be more inclusive in terms of participants has been met with mixed results as researchers across a variety of fields have discovered that members of minoritized groups are not always pleased to be asked to participate in research that is designed by “outsiders” for purposes that may have little or no importance for the minoritized group or groups in question. Some attribute this distrust to the legacy of research that was done to (rather than for or with) members of minoritized groups. This past experience has included horrendous examples, such as the medical experiments done on African American men in Tuskegee, Alabama, in which the subjects were allowed to suffer through syphilis with little or no treatment in order that the scientists could study the progress of the disease within this segment of the population. In the social sciences, there have been numerous examples, especially in anthropology, of studies of particular ethnocultural groups that have presented static and distorted pictures of groups. Although not as deadly as the Tuskegee experiments, this type of research has had an insidious effect on how members of dominant groups have perceived members of minoritized groups.

In part, establishing trust is being addressed in some disciplines by attention to creating a more diverse population within the research community. The American Anthropological Association, for example, established a committee on minority participation as early as 1970 for the express purpose of encouraging more researchers of minority backgrounds to enter and stay in the discipline. To this end, the committee has sponsored research on the reasons that people of minoritized backgrounds feel marginalized within the field and has developed mechanisms to support the work of researchers from minoritized groups. Similarly, the American Sociology Association has recently (2005) conducted a study to examine the reasons members of racialized groups are underrepresented in that field. Based on the findings, it seems that members of minoritized groups are being pushed out of the discipline, especially in doctoral studies and in the professoriate. Further research has been recommended to understand the issue more clearly and to develop solutions to the problem.

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