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 ways of life are produced and transmitted across generations. Ethnographers pay particular attention to family, kinship, and life cycle processes and have developed a range of methods for exploring them, including [Page 782]participant observation, various kinds of interview strategies, family history and kinship, life history, case studies, and longitudinal studies. This entry introduces the challenge of ethnocentric bias and the importance of reflexivity, perspective taking, and responsibility in ethnographic research. Specific methods relevant to studying life-span development are described—participant observation, interviews, kinship, life history, and case studies. Mixed methods and longitudinal studies can be especially valuable for the holistic perspective they provide on development across the life span in cultural context.

To understand people’s experience from their own point of view, ethnographers develop strategies for recognizing their own ethnocentrism, that is, a preference for one’s own home culture. Ethnographers instead embrace the idea of cultural relativism, an assumption that others’ cultural meanings and practices have meaning and value in the contexts of their own experience. Ethnographers try to withhold evaluation until they made every effort to understand. The concept of long-term fieldwork, involving language learning and day-to-day life in another society, was established as the central method of cultural anthropology by Bronislaw Malinowski who worked in New Guinea from 1914 to 1918. Since then, ethnographic methods have developed and diversified, undergoing constant scrutiny and discussion in pursuit of better understanding others’ life experience. The process of trying to set aside one’s own cultural expectations was well described by Hortense Powdermaker as “stepping in and stepping out” of one’s own culture. Her 1966 book, Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist, has been described as a cogent description of the theoretical basis for and psychological experience of doing ethnographic fieldwork.

Because ethnographic research involves direct experience and personal relationships, important ethical considerations have to be kept in mind. A sense of trust between the researcher(s) and research participants is central to the work of ethnography. Ethnographers’ primary obligation is to do no harm. Their responsibilities include communicating clearly the purpose and potential outcomes of the research; considering long-term impacts and unintended consequences of their research on participants; and evaluating how confidentiality, anonymity, collaboration, and credit/acknowledgment for participation can best serve the interests of the participants.

In the 1980s, a vigorous discussion began about authorial voice in ethnographic accounts—that is, who speaks for whom and what methods of presenting cultural stories are most appropriate for the subjects and subject matter of different ethnographic projects. In response to growing awareness of civil rights and human rights issues, researchers have become acutely aware of questions of authority, representation, and agency in the presentation of their research results, and these issues inform how they go about their work. Ethnographers must be aware of the partialness of their accounts and of how their presence and participation influence what they learn. This awareness has given rise to ethnographic work that is focused on particular groups within societies, especially women, children, and adolescents but also those living within institutional settings, such as hospitals, retirement communities, and assisted living facilities.

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