Dse141_Tma2

Compare and contrast the approach to studying children's friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1974) study with that taken by William Corsaro When studying children's friendships psychologists must first determine the best method and approach to use, this is a complex subject, studying feelings is very individual and detailed. This essay will look at the similarities and differences between the content analysis approach used by Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa and the ethnographic approach used by William Cosaro. It will also analyse the use of qualitative and quantitative methods and the positives and negatives raised in both studies. In the seventies Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa sought to examine an area that had attracted minimal research, children’s friendships. Their focus was on what extent of knowledge children of different developmental ages have of friendship. In contrast William Corsaro's work on this subject was concentrated on a child's personal views on the word 'friend'. These two aims meant that the research methods used were different to allow the results to reflect the personal detail in Corsaro's case or the amount of people involved in Bigelow and La Gaipa's work. (Brownlow, 2010, p. 250) Although both Bigelow and La Gaipa and Corsaro's research was based around children, their methods and in fact the ages and range of children they used were different. Bigelow and La Gaipa used a content analysis approach to study 480 children (equal amount of boys and girls) from eight different schools and varied backgrounds. (Brownlow, 2010, p.242) The age range was between six and fourteen years old. Corsaro however appears to have focused on pre-school aged children and a substantially lower amount of children, who appear to have been from the same backgrounds, and indeed friendship groups. The two studies started by using the same method, qualitative. Bigelow and La Gaipa used written essays to compile data about each child's views on their same sex friendship. Corsaro's focus throughout the whole of his research was an ethnographic approach, so his was based around observations within a certain group of children over a long period of time to collect his results. This enabled him to concentrate on the individual and personal translation of the word friend. (Brownlow, 2010, p. 250) Corsaro's approach meant that he did not limit his findings to only single sex friendships. Bigelow and La Gaipa were interested in finding general patterns however so they then switched to a quantitative method. By using twenty one pre-determined characteristics and doing a frequency count of the essays. This enabled them to do comparisons based on sexes and ages of the children and draw more generalised conclusions. This major difference in the methods used is important because it shows the huge contrast in what the researchers intended to achieve, Bigelow and La Gaipa were interested in finding general patterns and comparisons. However Corsaro wasn't interested in patterns he wanted to compile rich and complex results and see if he could find themes which meant a much smaller scale, but a much longer time was involved. (Brownlow, 2010, p. 251) Both studies had limitations in their methods to collect their data. Bigelow and La Gaipa, by not doing observational research and collecting data via written essays, had to rely on whether or not the children could and would express their true feelings in written form and entirely on their own without the help of adults or some gentle prompting. The interviewing method would have allowed a richer understanding of the individuals’ opinions. Corsaro's work involved integrating himself within a small group of friends. This meant that he had the hard task of gaining the children's trust and being accepted to a level which meant that he could observe their interactions. In Corsaro's notes he even mentioned that "it can be especially hard to 'blend in”. (Brownlow, 2010, p.251) This begs the question whether an adult could ever truly be accepted equally as other children could, and to what extent the children felt they could be open and honest and not on their best behaviour around “an outsider". So both methods have raised questions as to whether they completely get the full picture and indeed a natural response. Although it appears that an observational method, such as Corsaro used, would provide a more complex and richer description of a child's views than Bigelow and La Gaipa's method. However the lengthy time scale and much low number of children that can be studied also raises the question how does this research help' If Corsaro has only a few participants to study how does this method work on a larger scale and in different cultures and areas of the topic' It would take a long time to re-create this study in other areas of the world and different cultures, so it is hard to look at Corsaro's work and apply the results to the larger topic of children and their friendships. There appears to be a difference in opinion as to which method, qualitative or quantitative, is best suited for the complex topic of friendships. As the topic is about feelings and is very individual there are some psychologists like McLeod et al. who agree with Corsaro and decided to follow the qualitative method. McLeod et al. "argued that qualitative methods are more appropriate when studying the often-complicated relationships between friends because they enable an in-depth understanding of the issue". (Brownlow, 2010, p.257) However Bigelow and La Gaipa's method is also used by other psychologists, Gonzalez et al. used the quantitative and qualitative method to explore friendships within different cultures and societies. They used this method so that they could count the data received and look for patterns like Bigelow and La Gaipa. (Brownlow, 2010, p.259) They again managed to use a wider range of people and much bigger numbers. Both Bigelow and La Gaipa and Corsaro's methods had positive and negative aspects. Bigelow and La Gaipa managed to study a large amount of children from different backgrounds and classes and a large range of ages. They were able to generalise their findings and find patterns. This method could easily be used to study further and different patterns could be found studying different areas of the world and different cultures and backgrounds. This would help to gain a wider generalised view on the topic. However there still remains the criticism of their decision to use essays to collect the qualitative research. Also by using the frequency count, with the pre-determined characteristics, they would have ignored other patterns that may have come out of the essays. So they have lost the richness of this research. Corsaro's research focuses on this richness and the individual aspect, however the findings are lengthy and so complex that it takes a lot longer process to analyse it. By looking at themes, but not having anything pre-determined, he managed to keep the richness of the data and made the research much more individual. The negative points for this however are that it is such a lengthy method, and with such a small number of children to research, seeing if these themes are similar or different in other cultures, ages and backgrounds would be complicated and take many years to complete. Therefore neither method is perfect or ideal, and this is shown by the fact that questions and criticisms can be made for both. So it would appear that the most effective way to research this complex topic would be to use both qualitative and quantitative methods, and aspects of both the ethnographic and content analysis approaches. Then try to take the positive aspects from both methods. Perhaps the qualitative method could have been interviewing and questionnaires, but keeping with Corsaro’s method of having an open mind and not pre-determining the patterns and themes to be found. This could eliminate the question of whether the children could express their true feelings and would keep the depth, but still manage to find patterns that appeared in the questionnaires and interviews. The quantitative method, using a frequency count, could still be used to see how often these themes and patterns repeated themselves. This would keep the personal side of Corsaro's method and be able to find more general patterns like Bigelow and La Gaipa achieved so to enable analysis of larger amounts of people, backgrounds and cultures. Word Count - 1367 References: Brownlow, C, Making friends, Chapter Six, Brace, N and Byford, J,(2010) Discovering Psychology, Milton Keynes, The Open University.