Biographical research methods

John King

No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history, and of their interactions within a society, has completed its intellectual journey. C. Wright Mills

Definitions
Life story
The account given by an individual about his or her life

Life history
A personal account triangulated with external sources

Narrative approach
Recognises that an individuals personal account is a tightly edited account for an intended audience

Life histories

The life history may be the best available technique for studying such important social psychological processes as adult socialization, the emergence of group and organizational structure, the rise and decline of social relationships, and the situational response of the self to daily interactional contingencies.
Denzin 1970: 257

Life stories

A life story does not consist of an atomistic chain of experiences, whose meaning is created at the moment of their articulation, but is rather a process taking place simultaneously against the backdrop of a biographical structure of meaning, which determines the selection of the individual episodes presented, and within the context of the interaction with a listener.
Rosenthal (1993:63)

A history of life histories

Dilthey (1833-1911) viewed life story as a whole, an object complete unto itself
Developed the comprehensive method later refined by Weber

Extensively employed by Robert Park and colleagues at the Chicago School in the study of city life during the early C20 Fell out of favour during the late 1930s and 1940s as positivist methods gained favour Began to revive from the 1960s Narrative turn in social studies through the 1990s

Areas of study in which life history has made a substantive contribution (Plummer 1985)
Subjective reality of the individual Process, ambiguity and change in everyday life
The life history, more than any other technique except perhaps participant observation, can give meaning to the overworked notion of process (Becker 1970: 116)

The totality of the biographical experience

Individual experience as within the context of the group and wider social framework

Classic study

Thomas & Znaniecki ([1918-20]1958) The Polish Peasant in Europe and America
Sought to show that the problems of the immigrant community were due to the transition from a very different society The authors believed that the life-record could be used to explain the appearance of new individual attitudes and new social values by looking at the interplay of existing attitudes and values

Issues

Corroboration Voice Theoretical interpretation

Criticism of biographical methods

Do not permit hypothesis testing (Becker 1970) Offers insights but not reliable generalisations Fails to conform to scientific standards of validity (corresponds to truth) and reliability (achieves the same results each time)

Alternatives to positivistic standards of reliability, validity and generalisability (Hatch & Wisniewski 1995)

Adequacy at the level of meaning

Aesthetic finality Accessibility Authenticity Credibility Explanatory power Persuasiveness

Epistemological positions

Realist position - participants can know reality and report on it Phenomenological position - participants can know their experiences and report on them Constructionist position - both participants perceptions and researchers interpretations are shaped by cultural practices

Postmodernist position - narrative conventions and the process of writing up research mean that different interpretations of the text are possible

Theoretical approaches (Miller 2000)

Realist
Inductive Grounded theory, facts emerge from empirical material

Neo-positivist
Deductive

Narrative
Abductive / adductive

Theory tested against Aim is to understand empirical material actors unique situations Reality structured by interplay between interviewee and interviewer Authenticity is important

Actors views represent Actors views are reality interpretations of reality Saturation and reliability are important Interview effects must be controlled Validity is important

Interview situation is the Interview effects must core source of be controlled information

The researchers role and reflexivity

The intention in the study of lives is to gain an understanding of individuals life experiences within their socio-historical context (Roberts 2002) Shift from subject-object relationship to viewing the researcher as reflexive collaborator

Roberts, B., 2002. Biographical research, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Dealing with taken-for-granted assumptions

People are commonly unable to articulate their basic assumptions even though they behave in accordance with them (Garfinkel 1967)
This includes the researcher!

Jones (1983) suggests setting up a series of oppositions

Within narrators accounts
Between narrators accounts Between narrators accounts and the researchers construction of the situation

Methodological challenges

Choosing participants Retrospective performance; memory effects

Contextual elements are not always accessible to the narrator

Collecting life stories

cf. Miller, R.L., 1999. Researching Life Stories and Family Histories, London: SAGE.

Sampling
Opportunistic sampling Selective sampling (Schatzman and Strauss 1973)
Each narrator is chosen to represent a certain type or group considered to be important on conceptual grounds

Snowball sampling Probability sampling

More often used in quantitative research, but may be used to create conceptual categories

Arranging interviews

Secure fully informed co-operation

Number of interviews, interview length Agree an informal contract

Establish any off limits topics

Establish whether repondents identity will be confidential, and how confidentiality is to be maintained

Conducting interviews
Tell your life history or the story of your life... I will say very little, and if I ask you any questions it will be mainly about something not clear to me, if I dont understand something... take it in any order you want.
Use open-ended questions Elicit stories; probe generalizations

Avoid why questions

Follow up using respondents ordering/phrasing Dont interrupt; do not fear pauses

Watch for consistency in answers

Narrative interview style

Focus is on the interviewer/interviewee interaction
Ones self cant be left behind, it can only be omitted from discussions and written accounts of the research process. (Stanley & Wise 1993)

Transcripts of the first interviews can be shown to respondents

Second interview is a reflexive account of the first

Concerns for ethics and closing the gap between interviewer and interviewee

Narrator control
No control

Sight and comment on transcript accuracy

Sight and comment on interpretation Sight and comment on publication
1)Minority report 2)Veto

3)Co-authorship

Analysing life stories

cf. Miller, R.L., 1999. Researching Life Stories and Family Histories, London: SAGE.

Levels of analysis
Life history reconstruction
Factual details are clarified and temporally ordered

Thematic field analysis

Sections of text can be coded into:
1. Description 2. Narration 3. Argumentation

Reconstruction of biographical meaning

Hermeneutic micro-analysis

Contextualisation: relating the part to the whole

Scheffs (1997) part/whole ladder
Single words and gestures Sentences Exchanges Conversations Relationship of the two parties Life histories of the two parties All relationships of their type The structure of the host society: all relationships The history and future of the host civilisation The history and destiny of the human species

Fidelity
Fidelity rather than truth is the measure of these tales
Truth: what happened in a situation

Fidelity: what it means to the teller of the tale (think how difficult it is to write exactly what we mean!)

Is not ones fidelity to objects really a fidelity to others and oneself about objects? (William Earle, in Grumet)
Triangular relationship between the narrator, the narrative and its objects, and the receiver of the narrative

Narrator, narratee and the object of the narrative can agree on the quality of fidelity Grumet (1988) in Blumenfeld-Jones (1995)

Wengrafs diamond model

lived life (history)

told story (text)

context

subjectivity
Wengraf, T., 2000. Uncovering the general from within the particular. In P. Chamberlayne, J. Bornat, & T. Wengraf, eds. The turn to biographical methods in social science. Psychology Press, pp. 140164.

The hermeneutic process

Empathy I: the inside of actions

Source criticism: authenticity, bias, distance, dependence

The hermeneutics of suspicion

Pattern of Sub-interpretation WHOLE Empathy II: interpretation interpolation, The hidden basic imaginary question of the reconstruction PREUNDERUNDERtext a priori STANDING STANDING Existential understanding of situations The fusion of horizons Dialogue

PART Text

Poetics: root metaphors, narrative conventions

Asking: knocking at the text

Alvesson, M. & Skldberg, K., 2009. Reflexive Methodology, SAGE Publications Limited.

Challenges for researchers

Maintaining fidelity toward
The story of a person What that person is unable to articulate about the story and its meanings

Attaining believability
As a reasonable portrayal of the specific story As the story resonates with the audiences experiences

Blumenfeld Jones, D., 1995. Fidelity as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry. In J. A. Hatch & R. Wisniewski, eds. Life history and narrative. London: Falmer Press.

Types of presentation

Full unabridged presentation

Prominent use of interpretative framework with life story interspersed

Subject matter and comprehensiveness
Full life, period in a life, career

Re-presentation
Not simply about reorganising the details of a story (presentation)
The narrator is bounded by his or her purposes in telling the story The researcher has intentions and is reconstructing as well

Details are filtered and selected through certain values

Beliefs about what is important and what is not Ideas about how the juxtaposition of one particular with another will produce new understandings

Blumenfeld Jones, D., 1995. Fidelity as a criterion for practicing and evaluating narrative inquiry. In J. A. Hatch & R. Wisniewski, eds. Life history and narrative. London: Falmer Press.

Effects of stories

Transformation of individuals by challenging the limitations of available narratives and offering new narratives Bringing together individuals and constructing new identitities
This includes the researcher and researched!