The Use of Diaries in Sociological Research on Health Experience
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 1997 papers
Abstract
Diaries have been relatively neglected as a sociological research method. This paper highlights the value of diary research, drawing on the literature on auto/biographies and health service research as well as a qualitative study of need and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depth interviews. In particular, data from the study are used to illustrate the role of the ‘diary-interview’ method in offering a means to ‘observe’ behaviour which is inaccessible to participant observation. Five key advantages of the diary-interview are discussed, namely the potential of the ‘diary-interview’ method to accommodate different response modes; the extent to which the method captured diarists’ own priorities; the importance of the research process in illuminating the contexts within which helpseeking took place; the role of diaries as both a record of and reflection on the experience of illness and the value of the diary-interview method as a means of understanding what is ‘taken for granted’ in accounts of health and illness.
Related Papers
- → Connecting Participant Observation Positions(2013)43 cited
- → The Participant as Transcriptionist: Methodological Advantages of a Collaborative and Inclusive Research Practice(2003)32 cited
- → Challenges of Introducing Participant Observation to Community Health Research(2014)24 cited
- Using participant or non-participant observation to explain information behaviour. Participant observation, Non-participant observation, Information behaviour, Hospital pharmacists, Older people(2004)
- → Participant Observation: A Methodological Approach to the Study of Halfway Houses for Alcoholics(1979)3 cited