Learning Journal 13

In class on Monday we talked about gathering information while doing our field study. It is important that information is gathered in a certain way to help the informant to feel comfortable. One of the readings that we had for class discussed the process of building rapport. This process has four steps: Apprehension -> Exploration -> Cooperation -> Participation. Not everyone will follow these steps exactly, but this is the general format. One ultimately wants his informants to "participate" in the process. The first step is the awkward encounter when asking them to be a part of a research project. Then, the relationship is hopefully built until the individual is comfortable giving you cultural information that you may not have been asking for but is beneficial. It almost resembles the process of building a friendship, from the first meeting, to acquaintances, to best friends who can communicate openly. My research will be different because I just need them to trust me for a brief moment while I ask them the quick response questions. If I change my approach and decide to sit down and interview the people then I will definitely need to build rapport so that they will be open with me. But in a sense, it will also be important for them to trust me even if I do a short survey so that I get valid data. My project will also be unique because I will develop most of my questions before I even go over there. If I wanted to sit down with the people and interview them then it would be important for me to develop skills that would help me to probe into their answers. It will ultimately depend on the way that I decide to gather my research data, which I am still working on. I look forward to working with a translator to get the right answers or putting together the survey in their language and giving them options to pick from.