Nigel Holt - Research with People

Research with People

Theory, Plans and Practicals

Nigel Holt

Bath Spa University

Ian Walker

University of Bath

Nigel Holt and Ian Walker 2009

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN-13: 978-0-230-54555-7 paperback
ISBN-10: 0-230-54555-6 paperback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

Printed in China

preface

Theres an old saying that you may have heard: Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day; teach someone to fish and you feed them for a lifetime. This nicely begins to illustrate what we would like to achieve with this book.

Over the years we have taught research skills to students from many different backgrounds, including sociology, political studies, education, psychology, economics, pharmacology, medicine and business management. The methods used to carry out research with people are basically the same regardless of the discipline you work in a point were keen to stress. Even though the projects here may not immediately appear entirely relevant to your subject, they are chosen to illustrate certain points and provide certain skills that you will then be able to transfer to your own discipline.

Different readers may come from different disciplines, but when doing research with people we are all interested in the same thing, behaviour. Why do people do things? How might we influence that behaviour? What happens to the behaviour in different situations? More specifically, how might people react to a new advertising campaign or what do they think when they look in a shop window, or showroom? The scientific study of behaviour is psychology. If, at times, this book ever feels like a psychology book, this is simply because you are studying humans and this always involves using some psychology, no matter what background you come from.

Often, the students we have taught have previously taken research design courses before coming to us. At first, we got very excited about this: we thought we could skip all the introductory material and focus on the more sexy advanced techniques (or perhaps just take three months off to go skiing). Instead, we found most students came to us so confused about what they had learnt, we had to go right back to basics with them. Far too many had attended their lessons and handed in their assignments, but never really understood what they were doing. They got bogged down in all the fine details of designs and tests and analyses and never grasped the reasons for using those things in the first place. They focused on their footsteps, but didnt know where they were walking.

In this book, then, we have tried throughout to help you understand the why of research just as much as the how. Rather than simply describe experimental procedures and calculations, we also show you the big picture: what are you trying to achieve with those procedures and calculations? This is, we feel, much more useful than a book which simply says Do this, then this, then this and which leaves you not knowing why. This leads to superficial learning, which is soon forgotten.

Because we want you to understand what is happening when you conduct research, and what your ultimate goals are, we may at times simplify some complex points a little. We feel it is far better that you see the bigger picture and only 90% of the detail than it is for you to learn all of the detail, but miss the bigger picture entirely. This is an introductory book. Youll easily pick up later any details that we skim over, but if you dont grasp what you are trying to achieve at this stage it can take years to put that right.

Once you have learnt how to do research with people you will have the skills to answer any question you may ever want to ask. But you can only learn how to do research properly if your knowledge is given sound foundations. Our focus throughout is to build these foundations. We hope that you find our approach useful.

N IGEL H OLT ,
Bath, England

I AN W ALKER ,
Salisbury, England

acknowledgements

Thanks go to Anna Van Boxel and Jamie Joseph at Palgrave for their gentle encouragement and spectacular patience whilst we were writing this book. Thanks also to Ryan North of qwantz.com for allowing us to use his cartoon in Section 1, and to the many students we have taught over the years who have helped us develop our approach to teaching research methods and who constantly show us that it really doesnt need to be difficult or boring.

part

thinking about research

You are already thinking about research

Right at this moment you are reading the first sentence of a book on how to do research with people. You cant be doing this by accident. We definitely remember asking our publishers to write something on the cover to say that this book is all about doing research. You chose to ignore this warning, so you must already be thinking about research well done!

Okay, so were being a bit silly here: its the first book weve written together and were a little giddy with the excitement. Bear with us, well have calmed down in a few paragraphs.

Actually, though, in amongst all this nonsense we are trying to make quite a serious point: you might well think that reading this book is the first step you have ever taken towards learning how to do research with people, but the truth is you have been thinking about how to study people all of your life. Pretty much from the moment you were born, you instinctively experimented with your caregivers to learn how they would react to various things you did how else would you have learnt what is and is not acceptable in your culture? Today, every time you ask a question like I wonder why some people are more popular than others or I wonder why people seem to get more aggressive when they drive a car, you are setting up questions about people which could be addressed through systematic research. Indeed, if you put your mind to it, we are sure you would get at least part-way towards answering those questions right now.