Ethnographic Interviews

Describing Culture from a Native’s

Point of View
 Date Module Presenter
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 Research Process Jeff
Thursday, October 05, 2006 Research Process Jeff
Friday, October 06, 2006 Research Process Jeff
Saturday, October 07, 2006
*Long Weekend*
Sunday, October 08, 2006
No Class
Monday, October 09, 2006
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 Ethnography Jeff
Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Ethnography Jeff
Thursday, October 12, 2006 Cultural Domain Analysis Steve
Friday, October 13, 2006 Cultural Domain Analysis Steve
Saturday, October 14, 2006 Cultural Domain Analysis Steve
Sunday, October 15, 2006 Text Analysis Steve
Monday, October 16, 2006 Text Analysis Steve
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Text Analysis Steve
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 *No Class*
Thursday, October 19, 2006 Social Networks Jeff
Friday, October 20, 2006 Social Networks Jeff
Saturday, October 21, 2006 Consensus Modeling Jeff
Sunday, October 22, 2006 Wrap-Up Jeff
The General Data Collection
Process
Broad and General Questioning
Grand Tour
Improves inquiry
validity

Mini Tour

Systematic
Approaches Facilitates
comparison,
Focused triangulation,
Systematic data
Questioning portability and
analysis
 Three Types of Interviews
• Unstructured
• Semistructured
• Structured
Understanding complex systems of
meaning
• We can represent these complex systems
of meanings (culture) as cognitive maps
• What we do may also be called
ethnographic semantics in which we focus
on the understanding of cultural meaning
systems
• Culture can not be observed directly
 Ethnographic Inference
• From what people say
• From the way people behave
• From the artifacts people use

• Much of what we will learn concentrates

on the first
 Explicit and Tacit Knowledge
• Explicit Cultural Knowledge—Readily
expressed cultural knowledge
– More easily expressed through language and
easy to infer (e.g., “starve a cold and feed a
fever”)
– The world of South Pole crews being culturally
conceived of in terms of “beaker” vs. trades
crew
 Tacit Cultural Knowledge
• Much of culture consists of knowledge that may
not be expressed directly—taken for granted
and outside our awareness
• Ethnographers must make inferences about
knowledge from careful attention to what people
say, do and use.
• Both tacit and explicit knowledge is revealed
through speech
• Language is the means for transmitting culture
from generation to generation
 Culture is Encoded in Linguistic
Form
• The ethnographic interview approach focuses on
what people say—apt for the HTT context
• It is a strategy for getting people to talk about
what they know
• “It seeks to build a systematic understanding of
all human cultures from the perspective of those
who have learned them.”
• What we want to do is describe and discover the
regularities, patterns and variations in human
behavior, but through interviewing.
 Describing Culture in Its Own
Terms
• Translation Competence—refers not simply to
the ability to speak a language but to understand
and translate the subtleties of a native language
• Even if one is a native speaker different native
peoples talk about their worlds in subtle ways
that might not be correctly interpreted—e.g.,
Spradley’s “making a flop”
• Need to acquire linguistic competence that has
an impact on ethnographic discovery
• Need to learn another language within a
language
 Ethnographic Descriptions are a
Form of Translation
• Combines native terms and their meaning
along with ethnographers inferences and
interpretations
• “The ethnographer wants to discover
patterns of meaning in what the informant
says.”
• Finding patterns both within and between
informants
 Advantage—You are studying a
culture that you are not familiar with
—You lack a natives take it for
granted type of cultural knowledge.

Things will stand out to you that

would not to a native.
 The ethnographic Interview
• It is a speech event and it can appear to some degree like
a friendly conversation
• You ultimately want to incorporate ethnographic elements
into the interview but must be concerned to not go too
quickly
• You do not want this to seem like a “formal interrogation”
• You want rapport with the informant and you want to
maintain the informant’s cooperation
• “A few minutes of easygoing talk interspersed throughout
the interview will pay enormous dividends in rapport.”
• The HTT context generally requires the establishment of
rapport to take place almost exclusively within the interview
itself (we usually get to know informants informally before
going into the more formal interview process)
 Ethnographic Elements
• Explicit Purpose
– The ethnographer must make the purpose of
the interview clear to the informant.
– Ethnographic interviews have purpose and
direction and therefore can come off as too
formal---you need to minimize this formal feel.
– The interview moves from the informal friendly
(to build rapport) to the more formal as the
interview proceeds
 Ethnographic Elements
• Ethnographic Explanations
• You must always make the purpose of the
interview clear (even in the informant has
been interviewed before) since you are
attempting to get the informant to become
your teacher.
 The Five Ethnographic
Explanations
1. Project Explanations
2. Recording Explanations
3. Native Language Explanations
4. Interview Explanations
5. Question Explanations
 Project Explanations
• General statements about what the project is
about (what types of things are you interested in
having answered in broad terms).

• General: “I’m interested in your life as a herder.”

• Specific: “I would like to know what herders do,
how they talk about their daily routines, how they
talk to other herders, and understand what it
means to be a herder from you point of view.”
 Recording Explanations
• Check to see if writing down or recording
interview statements is ok.
• “Do you mind if I write notes on what you
say so I can go over them later?”
 Native Language Explanations
• You want informants to use their native
language (the subtle kind) and not use
their translation competence
• They will want to say things in ways they
think you want to hear them or translate in
to language they think you want to hear or
that they think you will understand
• “If you were telling this to another herder,
what would you say?”
 Interview Explanations
• Usually there are repeated interviews and the
ethnographer can eventually move the interview
to a more formal level
• We do not have that luxury but can move from a
more conversational to more formal interview
within the course of a single speech event
• These more formal events include drawing
maps, doing card sorts, etc.
• You need to
 Question Explanations
• Need to explain when changing the
ethnographic question or from one topic to
another
• “I want to ask you a different type of
question.”
 Ethnographic Questions
• Spradley identifies more than 30 types of
questions. The three main types are:
– Descriptive questions
– Structural question
– Contrast questions
 Descriptive Questions
• Helping to collect samples of an
informant’s language or use of words.
• Easiest to ask and used in all interviews,
particularly in the beginning.
• “Could you describe a typical day of
herding you stock?”
 Structural Questions
• Allow for the discovery of information about
domains, the basic units of informants’ cultural
knowledge
• Help in discovering how informants organize
cultural knowledge
• “What are the kinds of animals you hunted on
your last hunting trip?”
• “Can you think of any other activities you do
while herding your stocks?” (Always important to
probe and repeat)
 Contrast Questions
• Need to find out what informant’s terms
mean
• Allows for the discovery of dimensions of
meaning used to distinguish between
objects and events
• “You mentioned caribou and moose,
what’s the difference between a caribou
and a moose?”
 The Ethnographic Interview
Process
Greetings Ethnographic Explanations Asking Friendly Questions

Ethnographic Explanations Expressing Cultural Ignorance

Asking Ethnographic Question Repeat Express cultural Ignorance

Repeat Ask Descriptive Question (Grand Tour)

Express Interest

Incorporate Native Terms Ask Descriptive Question (Mini Tour)

Express Ignorance Ask Structural Question Expressing/Restating

Ethnographic Explanation Expressing Interest and Ignorance Restate

Take Leave Express Ignorance Mini Tour Question—Hypothetical Situation

• Lack of balance in taking turns—informants talk
more
• Repetition instead of avoidance of repetition
• Expressing interest and ignorance is almost all
on the part of the ethnographer (remember you
are the student)
• Instead of brevity the ethnographer encourages
the informant to expand at every step
• This process requires much practice to acquire
 Problem
Traditionally ethnographers have weeks or
even months to move from the more
general and open to the more focused and
systematic within an informant
You may only have 1 interview before
having to ask more systematic type
questions or you may have to become
more systematic within the same interview
 The Ethnographic Record
• The native’s language
• The ethnographer’s language
• Best to have verbatim record of what
people say
• Distinguish between native terms and
observer terms in any field notes or written
record
 Rapport Process

Apprehension

Exploration

Cooperation

Participation
The Rapport Problem is Particularly
Problematic Here
• Apprehension
– Descriptive questions are particularly good for
starting the conversation and keeping the
informant talking
Apprehension hopefully gives way to
exploration
 Exploration
• Figuring out the relationship
– May have to set aside prepared questions to talk of
something of interest to the informant
– Need to judge the reaction of informants to your
actions
– Make repeated explanations
– Restate what informants say —demonstrates interest
– Don’t ask for meaning, ask for use---You learn
meaning not by asking why but by asking how people
use ordinary language
 Participation
• Informants begin to take on a more
assertive role helping you more easily
achieve your interview goals
• Not all get to this stage particularly for this
context
 Ethnographic Questions
• Assumes the question-answer sequence
is a single element of human thinking.
• “Thus, the task of the ethnographer is to
discover questions that seek the
relationship among entities that are
conceptually meaningful to the people
under investigation (Black and Metzger,
1965:144).”
 Discovering Questions
• Record the questions people ask in
everyday life.
• Can inquire directly about questions used
by people in some cultural scene or
context.
• Or, ask informant to talk about a particular
cultural scene
 Direct Inquiry (Black and Metzger)
• “What is an interesting question
about_________?”

• What is a question to which the answer

is________?”

• Ask an informant to write a text in question

and answer form.
 Descriptive Questions
Talking About a Particular Cultural Scene

• “advantage of the power of language to

construe settings (Frake)”.
• “Could you describe a typical day in the
village square?”
• “What do you do as a herder?”
• Expanding the length of the question expands
the length of the response
• “Could you tell me what the mosque is like?”
• I have never been in a mosque here in _____,
so I don’t have much of an idea of what it is like.
Could you kind of take me through the mosque
and tell me what it’s like, what I would see if I
went into the mosque and walked around?
• Trying to get the informants to tell you as much
as they can in greater detail.
 Five Types of Descriptive
Questions
• Grand Tour Questions
• Mini-Tour Questions
• Example Questions
• Experience Questions
• Native-Language Questions
 Grand Tour Questions
• Typical grand-tour questions
– “Could you describe to me a typical day in the
olive grove?”
– “Could you describe to me how you typically
set your salmon net?”
– Ask informants to talk and generalize about a
pattern of events
 Grand Tour Questions
• Specific Grand Tour Questions
– “Could you describe to me what happened the
last time you had an empty soda can?”
– “Tell me what you did yesterday, from the time
you got up til the time you went to sleep?”
– Often hard to describe the typical event but
may be easier to anchor on a real event
 Grand Tour Questions
• Guided Grand Tour Questions
– “Could you take me around the farm?”
– “Next time you go out to set a fishing net can I
come along a so you can explain to me how
you do it?”
– An actual tour of something
 Grand Tour Questions
• Task-Related Grand Tour
– “Can you draw a map of the village and
describe to me the places where men typically
socialize with one another in the evenings?”
– “Could you play a game of ______ and
explain to me what you are doing?”
– A simple task that aids in the description
 Mini-Tour Questions
• Breaking events into their constituent parts
– “Could you describe what you are doing with
the hydraulic roller while setting the net?”
– “Could you describe to me what you do for the
mid day meal when herding your flock?”
– There are typical, specific, guided, and task-
related mini-tour questions
 Example Questions
• Even more specific and ask the informant
to provide an example
– Informant: “I was shoulder hopped by this
guy.”
– Ethnographer: “Could you give me an
example of shoulder hopping?”
– May lead to interesting stories of actual
events
 Experience Questions
• Asking for informant’s actual experiences
with something
– “You have probably had some interesting
experiences while out fishing; can you recall
any of them?”
– “Can you tell me about some interesting
experiences you’ve had while commuting to
work in Kabul?”
– Often elicit atypical events
 Native-Language Questions
• Designed to minimize the influence of
informant’s translation competence—
encourages terms and phrases most
commonly used in the cultural scene
• Three Types:
Direct-Language Questions
Hypothetical-Interaction Questions
Typical-Sentence Questions
 Direct-Language Questions
• “How do you refer to this?”
• “What would you call this?”
• “Would you say ____?”

– Surfer: “When I take off I try to get inside the

wave.”
– Ethnographer: “How would you refer to the
inside of the wave?”
– Surfer: “Oh, it is called the tube.”
Hypothetical-Interaction Questions
• Since roles and identities are important in
what people might say to one another, you
can create a hypothetical interaction.
– “If you were talking to another surfer (herder,
cab driver) what would you say?”
– “If I was sitting at a table next to men who
were drinking tea in the café what would they
typically say to each other?”
– Discover how people talk to one another
depending on their roles
 Typical-Sentence Questions
• Provide the informant with one or more
native terms to use in a sentence
– “What are some sentences I would hear that
include the phrase getting some air?”
Descriptive questions are basis of
all ethnographic interviewing
Lead to utterances expressed as language
used by the informants themselves in the
cultural scene of interest
Can be phrased in cultural and personal
terms
Valid elicitation depends on phrasing
questions in cultural terms
 Relational Theory of Meaning
• People order their lives in terms of the meaning of
things
• How we react in a given situation depends on the
meaning we attribute to that situation (and the things or
symbols in it)
• How we react in a new situation is dependent on the
meaning attributed to similar experiences
• “People behave similarly towards things they perceive
as being similar.” Volney Stefflre
• Cultural Schemas--models of and for behavior (e.g.,
the living room schema--it can be confirmed or
violated)
 Symbols: any object or event
that refers to something
• Meaning is conveyed through symbols
• Words are symbols
• Mannerisms are symbols
• Dress is a symbol
• The triad of symbolic meaning
– The symbol itself
– One or more referents
– The relationship between the symbol and the
referent
 The Symbol
• Anything that can be perceived or
experienced
• They are expressed as folk terms by
informants
• Fear, excitement, etc. can be expressed
as symbols (clenched teeth, wink of the
eye)
 The Referent
• A thing the symbol refers to
• We can refer to stars and trees or to
mythical beings (shape shifters) that don’t
really exist
 The Relationship
• The referent becomes encoded in the symbol
• The symbol becomes the focus of attention (the
word as opposed to the thing itself)
– House is a symbol for a place to live
– But a house is also a place to eat, sleep, relax,
entertain, etc.
– Has many referents (maybe hundreds)
– We want to know the differences among the many
referents
 Meaning Systems
The system of symbols that constitute
culture
• Cultural knowledge is an intricately
patterned system of symbols
• The meaning of any symbol is it
relationship to other symbols
– The meaning of house in relation to all the
other symbols (sleeping, relaxing)
– The meaning of salmon as it relates to other
symbols (both other fish and attributes of a
fish)
 Categories
• When symbols are related by inclusion
they are called categories
• They are an array of things that can be
treated as equivalent
– Different kinds of trees
– Different kinds of fish
– Different kinds of insurgents
 Categories
• They can vary dramatically in size
• Some categories subsume others
– Fish includes pelagic fish which includes tuna,
swordfish, marlin, wahoo, etc.
– Symbols linked in sequence--an Islamic
wedding ceremony and it’s components
“The task of ethnography is to
decode cultural symbols and
identify the underlying coding
rules. This can be
accomplished by discovering
the relationship among
cultural symbols.” (Spradley)
 Domains
• Symbolic categories that contain other
symbolic categories
• All members share at least one feature of
meaning
– Domain of fruits
– Domain of foods you eat for breakfast
– Domain of kinds of problems in a village
 Domains
• All domains have cover terms
• These terms are names for a category of cultural
knowledge
• All domains have two or more included terms
• All have a single semantic relationship
– What is a tuna? It is a kind of fish. It is a kind of
pelagic fish
– Linked by the semantic relation “is a kind of “ to fish
and pelagic
• Every domain has a boundary
 Semantic Relationships
• Semantic relationships are generally beneath
the surface of most speech
• Allow reference to all the subtleties of meaning
connected to folk terms
• Three types of semantic relationships:
– Taxonomy or inclusion (a salmon is a kind of fish)
– Attribution (a salmon has fins)
– Queueing or sequence (a fish moves through a series
of growth stages--fry to juvenile to adult)
 Universal Semantic
Relationships
• Strict inclusion
• Spatial
• Cause-Effect
• Rationale
• Location for Action
• Function
• Means-end
• Sequence
• Attribution
 Strict Inclusion
• X is a kind of Y
• Domain--Kinds of fish
• Structural question--Are there different
kinds of fish?
• Domain--Kinds of insurgents
• Structural question--What are the different
kinds of insurgents?
 Spatial
• X is a place in Y, X is a part of Y
• Domain--Parts of fish
• Structural question---What are all the parts
of a fish?
• Domain--Places to hangout in Kabul
• Structural question--Where are all the
places to hangout in Kabul?
 Cause-effect
• X is a result of Y, X is a cause of Y
• Domain--Causes of cervical cancer
• Structural question--What are the things
that cause cervical cancer?
• Domain--Causes of unrest in Kabul
• Structural question--What are the things
causing unrest in Kabul?
 Rationale
• X is a reason for doing Y
• Domain--Reasons for going fishing
• Structural question--What are the reasons
for going fishing?
• Domain--Reasons for carrying a weapon
• Structural question--What are all the
reasons for carrying a weapon?
 Location for Action
• X is a place for doing Y
• Domain--All the places to trawl for shrimp
• Structural question --What are all the
places to trawl for shrimp?
• Domain--All the places to fly a kite
• Structural question--What are all the
places to fly a kite?
 Function
• X is used for Y
• Domain--Uses for a dining room
• Structural question--What are all the uses
for a dining room?
• Domain--Uses for goat
• Structural question--What are all the uses
for a goat?
 Means-end
• X is a way to do Y
• Domain--Ways to make your mother mad
• Structural question--What are all the ways
to make your mother mad?
• Domain--Ways to avoid checkpoints
• Structural question--What are all the ways
to avoid a checkpoint?
 Sequence
• X is a step (stage) IN y
• Domain--Steps in setting a salmon set net
• Structural question--What are the steps in
setting a salmon set net?
• Domain--Steps in getting olives to market
• Structural question--What are the steps in
getting olives to market?
 Attribution
• X is an attribute (characteristic) of Y
• Domain--Attributes of fish
• Structural question--What are the
attributes of fish?
• Domain--Characteristics of a Sunni
wedding
• Structural question--What are all the
characteristics of a Sunni wedding?
 Elicitation
• Can be elicited from informants directly
• Can be coded from in-depth interviews
– SEARCH FOR FOLK TERMS IN
INTERVIEWS
 Structural Questions
• When asking
– Do them concurrently with descriptive questions
Ethnographer: You said young men in the village
hang out in different places in the village. What are
some of these places? (structural) Informant: Well
there is the square, the park, the bridge, and the local
school yard. Ethnographer: Can you describe what
they do when hanging out at the bridge? (descriptive)
– Also helps with the boredom often created from
asking structural questions
 Structural Questions
• Provide explanation
– “We have been talking about problems in the
village and you have mentioned a few. Now I
want to ask you something slightly different.
I’m interested in getting a list of all the types
of problems in the village or at least the ones
that have emerged since the Americans
arrived. This might take a while but I would
like you to name all the problems.”
 Structural Questions
• Don’t be afraid to repeat
• Structural questions must be repeated
many times to elicit an exhaustive list of
items
– “You said X, are there any more you can think
of?”
 Structural Questions
• Context is important
• Put it in context with what other informants
have said or in the context where the
terms are most often used
– “I’ve learned from other village elders that one
of the most important things is sharing the
various parts of the whale. Is that right? Is
sharing the different parts of the whale
common among the villages?”
 Structural Questions
• Phrase things in cultural as well as
personal terms
– “What are all the types of refreshments you
serve to guests at home?” (personal)
– “What are all the kinds of drinks served to
guests in a home?” (cultural)
 Kinds of Structural Questions
• Verification Questions
• Cover Term Questions
• Included Term Questions
• Substitution Frame Questions
• Card Sorting Structural Questions
 I. Verification Questions
• The purpose is to confirm or disconfirm
some hypothesis on the part of the
ethnographer
– “Is a whale a kind of fish?”
– “Is a Sufi a type of Muslim?”
 II. Domain Verification
• Seeks to confirm the existence of a
domain
– “Are there different kinds of Y’s?”
– “Are there different kinds of Muslims?”
 III. Included Term Verification
• Seeks to determine if terms are included in
a domain
– Are Muslims a kind of group in Afghanistan?
– Are Pashtuns a kind of group in Afghanistan?
 IV. Semantic Relationship
Verification
• Test the appropriateness of the way a
semantic relationship is expressed
– Would Afghans say Muslims are a kind of
group in Afghanistan?
– Would Inupiat hunters say that ugruk is a kind
of subsistence product?
V. Native -Language Verification
• To test for informant translation
– Would a Pashtun say _____ when talking to
other Pastuns?
– Making sure that the terms used by natives
when talking to other natives is what is being
used
 Cover Term Questions
• Most common type of structural question
– Kinds of Afghans
– Ways to make fast money in Kabul
– Steps in getting poppies to market
– Ways to be an observant Muslim
 Included Term Questions
• Probing if things belong to a domain
– Are needles, cottons, spoons, and syringes all
things you share with others when shooting
up?
– This would then constitute the domain of
things shared by IV drug users
 Substitution Frame Questions
• Removing a term from a statement to see
what other things fit the sentence
– Carrying a gun is a way to keep safe
– ______ is a way to keep safe
• Staying in at night is a way to keep safe
• Traveling with friends is a way to keep safe
 Card Sorting Structural
Questions
• Understanding and verifying domains with
the use of cards
• In the informal way allows people to
discuss relationships among things that
might be more difficult in simple interview
contexts
• Formal way allows for quantification and
comparison across informants
Probing: Stimulating informants to provide as much
information as possible without interjecting yourself into the
data
• The Silent Probe
– Pausing and waiting for an informant to continue
• The Echo Probe
– A neutral repetition that shows understanding fo what the
informant just said
• The Uh-Huh Probe
– Uh-Huh; Yes, I see--help in obtaining longer responses
• The Tell-Me-More Probe
– Could you tell me more about X?; Why exactly do you feel
that way?
• The Long Question Probe
– Using long questions may get longer responses
 The Leading Probe

You should lead the informant as

little as possible, but sometimes it
is necessary.
“OK, I see. The father of the bride
has to pay a dowry. But what
happens if the father does not
pay?”
Elicitation Techniques for
Interviewing
 The Process
Sample 1 Sample 2
Depersonalize—Remove the query
away from ego
• Sometimes it is easier for informants to refer to
others rather than themselves
• More range of possibilities
• Example--Concepts of success and failure
– Asked informants to name all the successful people
they knew of
– Asked informants to name all the unsuccessful people
they knew of
– Elicited all the things that made people both
successful and not successful
Frames Derived From Elicitation
Elicitation Phases in the Study
of Pollution
 The Elicitation Sequence
Types of Pollution

Types of Problems Caused by Pollution Determined

domains with
purposive
Relate Types of Pollution by Similarity
sample of
Determined experts
relations among Kinds of Species Effected informants
terms using
convenience
sample of locals; Link Types of Pollution to Types of Causes
Used card sorts
to find relations
and collect
cultural Identify Sea Life Impacted by Type of Pollution
explanations

Develop Cultural Propositions

Separate sample for test of sharing of propositions
Cultural Propositions for Use in
Cultural Consensus
 Travel Destinations to the
Caribbean: Promoting Travel to
Puerto Rico
Actual First Sample
Actually Third Set of Informants
Island List
Attribute List
 Outreach Exert From Brochure to
Travel Agents Promoting Puerto Rico
as a Sportfishing Destination
Strategy and Use of Data
 EXAMPLE 1: PERCEPTION OF
ILLNESSES (Weller 1984)
To compare the perception of urban Guatemalan women
with urban women from the U.S.

• Disease terms were first elicited with free-listing (20

Women in each country)

• Names of the illnesses were printed on 3x5 index

cards (29 in English and 27 in Spanish).

• To understand the perceptual categories of illnesses,

an additional 24 women in each country were asked to
sort the cards into piles according to their similarity,
making as few or as many piles as they wished.
 Table 1
English Disease Terms
Frequency Disease Term
15
13 Cancer*
12
9
Mumps*
9 Measles*
9 Chicken Pox*
7
7 Leukemia
7 Tuberculosis
6
6
Diabetes*
6 Multiple Sclerosis
5 Pneumonia
5
5 Cold
5 Flu*
5
4
Muscular Dystrophy
4 Emphysema
4 Heart Disease
3
3 Polio*
3 Scarlet Fever
3
3
Venereal Disease
3 Arthritis*
3 Migraine
3
3 Whooping Cough*
3 Diphtheria*
Headache
Hepatitis*
Mental Illness
Mononucleosis
Rubella*
Smallpox*
Strep Throat
Stroke
Ulcers

* Items that appear on the Spanish list

 TO UNDERSTAND THE PREFERENCES OF ANGLO
AND HISPANIC WOMEN FOR BREAST OR
BOTTLEFEEDING
(Weller & Dungy)

Much evidence has accumulated regarding the advantages of breast

milk:
• Anti-infective properties
• Inhibits ovulation
• More economical

Given the advantages of breast milk, why do so many women choose

to bottle feed?
• Choose breast feeding for their infant because it is the best for their
baby
• Choose breast feeding because they are too embarrassed to breast
feed or because they wish to work.
Unfortunately, prior projects have either
•Recorded the responses to open-ended questions, or
•Recorded whether or not women agree or disagree to a series of statements

These approaches used singly are limited by:

•Memory bias (in open-ended questions)
•People “recall” less than they “recognize”
•Some give short and others long lists
•By using a standardized set of statements the problem of obtaining inconsistent or
non-comparable data across respondents can be avoided. However, if the list is
researcher generated it is subject to personal biases

A preferable approach is to combine both:

•Use open-ended questions to generate items and statements, and
•Use those statements to collect data systematically
 Subjects
• Women were interviewed at the University of California
Irvine Medical Center, approximately 100 miles north of
the U.S-Mexican border on the California coast.

• Approximately ¾ (75%) of births at the University

hospital are to Hispanic women and approximately
55% of women report an intention to breastfeed.

• Women were sampled according to their chosen

feeding method and ethnicity/language.

• Women were interviewed within the first 48 hours of

birth.
 Procedure
Interviews were conducted in two phases:

• First, lengthy open-ended interviews were conducted with women

in each category:

Anglo Hispanic
Breast feeder 14 14 28
Bottle feeder 13 14 27
27 28 55
Second,Items obtained from the preliminary interviews were ranked in subsequent
interviews

Anglo Hispanic

Breast feeder 50 46 96
Bottle feeder 48 51 99
Items (Mothers’ reasons for choosing a particular infant feeding method)
Were Generated with Multiple Questions

During the open-ended interviews women were asked:

1. What are the advantages of breast feeding/breast milk?
2. What are the disadvantages of breast feeding?
3. What are the advantages of bottle feeding?
4. What are the disadvantages of bottle feeding?
5. Why would one (not) choose (bottle) breast feeding etc.?

For each question, women were asked to list as many items as possible.
Unique, verbatim answers were tabulated across respondents. The most
frequently mentioned items were thus identified and put into a common
format for further study.
1. Can you tell me the reasons why you want to breastfeed your baby?
(Probe: “you mentioned_________. What other reasons are there?”)
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
________________________________________

2. Why do you think some people breastfeed? (What other reasons might cause someone
to choose breastfeeding?)

______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
3.Why do you decide not to bottle feed?

______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
4. What are the advantages of breastfeeding?

______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
5. What are the disadvantages of breastfeeding?

______________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
 6. What are all the things you like about breast feeding?
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
_____________________________
7. What are all the things you dislike about breast feeding?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
___
8. What are all the things you dislike about breast feeding?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
___
9. In what situations would you not want to breast feed?

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
___
10. A. Do you know someone who has breast fed?
1. Yes 2. No
B. if yes, who (what relation?)______________
11. A. Has anyone encouraged you to breast feed?_________
1. Yes 2. No
 Item Selection
The 26 most frequently mentioned statements for both
English-speaking Anglos and Spanish-speaking Hispanics
appear as Appendices A and B in the Weller & Dungy
(1986) article.

The 18 most frequently mentioned items from each list were chosen
for further study.

The statements were changed to a neutral form “A way to feed your

baby that…”

Half of the statements contained “positive” attributes and half were

“negative”

“Breastfeeding” and “Bottle feeding” were added to the list to create

20 statements. (Table 2 in Weller & Dungy)
 Table 1: ENGLISH LIST OF REASONS IN APPROXIMATE
ORDER OF IMPORTANCE
1. Many women are embarrassed to breast feed in public or in front of strangers. Bottle feeding can be
done anytime, anywhere, (breast, go off and relax).
2. When breast feeding you don’t have to wash and sterilize or fix bottles.
3. Breastfeeding allows you to feel closer to your baby.
4. Breast feeding is healthier/better for your baby.
5. Breast feeding is cheaper and more economical.
6. Bottle feeders are less tied down; breast feeders have to stay home a lot; they can go more places
and do more things; for people who can’t be at home.
7. Breast feeding is easier and more convenient.
8. Bottle feeding is better if you work or want to go back to work; pumping your breasts is difficult.
9. There is no soreness and pain with bottle feeding.
10. Breast fed babies don’t seem to get sick or spit-up like formula fed babies.
11. Breast feeding is natural.
12. Bottle feeding is safer, in case you get sick; or, if you get sick & can’t breastfeed
13. Breast feeding is more convenient.
14. Mother’s milk protects the baby; the baby gets natural immunities from mother’s milk.
15. Mother’s milk is the one, perfect formula made for babies.
16. Bottle feeding is better if the mother is taking medication (methadone).

17. With bottle-feeding, you don’t have to worry about emotuibs interfering and your milk not coming or
drying up.
18. Formula has as many vitamins as mother’s milk.
19. Formulas have chemicals in them and sometimes these are dangerous to the baby.
20. Bottles aren’t good for the baby’s mouth; they don’t provide the necessary sucking.
21. You loose weight faster and get into shape faster when you breastfeed.
22. Breast feeding is more nutritious.
Table II: SPAINISH LIST OF REASONS IN ORDER OF
MENTION:
1. Because many people work they cannot take care of the baby.
Bottle feeding is beneficial for women when they are working.
2. It is less risky to bottle feed than breastfeed, as with women who get angry easily. If
the mother is angry this will affect the baby.
3. Breastfed babies grow-up to be healthier.
4. I would not like to be seen breastfeeding around men or in a public place.
5. One does not have to spend money in buying milk; breastfeeding is cheaper/less
expensive.
6. I feel I am closer to my baby. I love my baby more because I spend more time with
him.
7. With breastfeeding, you don’t have to get-up in the middle of the night and prepare
bottles; breastfeeding mothers don’t have to clean bottles or prepare and store
milk.
8. Mother’s milk is richer/better than formula.
9. Many women don’t want their breasts to sag.
10. You can’t let anyone feed the baby, you don’t have to be there all the time; one is
free to do more things.
11. Breastfed babies get sick less, bottles get dirtier and many women do not clean
them well.
12. A woman tends to age faster or get wasted breastfeeding.
13. With breastfeeding, the baby
 Table III: WHAT WOMEN SAY ABOUT
BREAST/BOTTLE FEEDING (OVERLAP)
1. Work
2. Anger
3. Healthier
4. Modesty
5. Economics
6. Closer to baby
7. Prepare bottles
8. Less tied down
9. Convenient
10. Soreness
11. Not sick as often; protects the baby
12. Natural
13. If mother is sick or on medication
14. Perfect formula for babies, vitamins and minerals it needs
15. Milk richer, better
16. Saggy breasts
17. Free to do more things; anyone can feed
18. Age fast; waste
19. Practical; easier
20. Baby is full
21. Husband
 TABLE IV:
1. A way that’s convenient because you don’t have to prepare bottles.
2. A way that allows you to feel closer to your baby.
3. A cheaper and more economical way.
4. A way that is convenient because it allows you to feed your baby anywhere,
without embarrassment.
5. A way so your baby will grow up healthier.
6. A way that won’t hurt your baby even when you are angry or upset
7. A way that will allow you to go to work.
8. A way that will provide all the vitamins and nutrients your baby needs.
9. A way that protects your baby from getting sick as often.
10. A way so that your baby feels full and satisfied.
11. A way to feed your baby even when you are sick or taking medications.
12. * A way that doesn’t tie you down, so that you are free to do more things.
13. Breast feed.
14. With a bottle
15. * A way that your husband (or boyfriend) likes too.
16. * A way to feed your baby with milk that’s richer and better.
17. * A way that allows you to loose weight and regain your figure.
18. * A way so that your breasts won’t sag.
19. * A way that is nutritious for your baby, even if you are not eating right.
20. * A way so that others can help feed your baby.
 DISCIPINARY BELIEFS OF ANGLO AND
HISPANIC ADOLESCENTS
(Weller, Romney, Orr 1987)
A study was undertaken to explore cultural differences
in the definition of “child abuse.”

Interviews were conducted in two stages with Anglo and

Hispanic adolescents.

In the first stage, a list of adolescent “misbehaviors” and

“punishments” were obtained.

In the second stage, 9 misbehaviors were paired with

each of 15 punishments creating 135 questions on the
appropriateness of disciplinary responses.
 DISCIPLINARY BELIEFS
QUESTIONAIRE DEVELOPMENT
• In-depth interviews were conducted to obtain a
comprehensive list of adolescent misbehaviors
and adult disciplinary responses.

• Verbatim responses of 29 Anglo and 27

Hispanic adolescents were recorded.

• Individual interviews were conducted with

approximately equal numbers of males and
females.
 DISCIPLINARY BELIEFS
QUESTIONAIRE DEVELOPMENT
(cont.)
Each interview took one to two hours to complete
and consisted of open-ended and free-listing type
questions, descriptive answers, and probes by
interviewers to seek further explanations.

The following issues were explored:

1. “What things do you (or other teenagers) do that make your

parents/mother/father/adults/etc. angry?” (the purpose was to elicit as exhaustive a list
of “misbehaviors as possible.)

2. (For each response to the previous question)

“When do you____, what do your parents, etc. do?”

3. “What others things might be likely to make adults upset or angry?”

4. (For each item mentioned) “And if___makes adults angry, what might they do in
response?”
 DISCIPLINARY BELIEFS
QUESTIONAIRE DEVELPMENT
• Responses were tabulated from the 56
adolescents.

• In addition, because extreme forms of

“punishment” and child abuse are relatively rare, a
list of “punishments” reported most frequently by
abused adolescents in the University Hospital
Emergency Department were included.

• A final list of 9 adolescent behaviors and 15 adult

responses was chosen.
 Adolescent Adult
Behavior Response

1. Take things away (bike, phone…)

1. Stay out late 2. Ground them and don’t let them go out

2. Don’t do their chores 3. Whip them with a belt

4. Ask why they did it and tell them it better not happen again.
3. Lie
5. Shake them
4. Get bad grades or don’t study
6. Don’t let them do something they want to
5. Get drunk 7. Spank them
6. Talk back 8. Sit down and talk to them about it
7. Break the law 9. Send them to their room

8. Take drugs 10. Hit them with a broomstick or rod

9. Don’t do what they are told 11. Hit them with a fist or punch them
12. Don’t trust them as much and check up on them all of the
time
13. Yell at them
14. Put them down
15. Slap them
 SET
Checkfor
Check for
Breaks
Breaks

Circling
Birds Fleet Location

Depth Bait in
Area

30'
Water Near Surface
Doppler <= .3 knots 72' and at Hook Level Conducive
Good
Temp > 62 deg. Moving at Same Temp.
90' Velocity Readin
gs
Motion and Leader Less
Thermocline ID Likely to Spin

Depth

Doppler <=.3 knots 30' Slow Moving

Surface Water
72' And Cold Fast
Moving Spin Leaders
Doppler > .3 knots 90' Subsurface Water Twisting
Mainline

Sharks

Keep
Searching

Key:

Animal Environmental Gear & Other Outcomes

Behavior Factors Factors
CLASS EXAMPLES