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Cultural phenomena and the research enterprise: Toward a culturally anchored methodology
Author(s) -
Hughes Diane,
Seidman Edward,
Williams Nathaniel
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.113
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1573-2770
pISSN - 0091-0562
DOI - 10.1007/bf00942243
Subject(s) - ethnocentrism , process (computing) , health psychology , sociology , cultural sensitivity , population , management science , psychology , epistemology , social psychology , knowledge management , engineering ethics , computer science , public health , engineering , medicine , philosophy , demography , nursing , psychotherapist , operating system
Highlights the points at which culture intersects major phases of the research enterprise — problem formulation, population definition, concept and measurement development, research design, methodology, and data analysis — and influences and constrains what researchers deem worthy of investigation and how they interpret what they observe. These ethnocentric biases inhibit the development of a knowledge base for understanding diverse cultural communities. At each step of the research process, the need to carefully examine and expose the underlying cultural assumptions and to generate and develop alternative choices is emphasized. Guidelines are provided to encourage researchers to be aware of and deliberately make choices toward the development of a culturally anchored methodology that balances the demands for rigor and sensitivity.