Entering the ethnographic mind: A grounded theory of using ethnography in psychological research

ABSTRACT

Ethnography has flourished in small pockets of psychological researchers but is not widely embraced in psychology. Increased calls for qualitative methods have taken place recently in psychology, and at times ethnography is grouped into this without proper attention to the epistemological stance and approach of ethnographic research. Our purpose was to illuminate the use of ethnography in psychological research. We used a grounded theory approach to individually interview researchers (N = 14) who use ethnography, ethnographically informed methods, or auto-ethnography across subdisciplines. Analyses led to the identification of seven categories:

● doing ethnography in psychological research;

● training or a lack thereof;

● positioning oneself as a researcher between fields;

● centering self, site, and context;

● a different model of causality;

● what psychologists need to know to embrace ethnography: unsaid and unwritten rules; and

● writing ethnography: juggling legitimacy, rigor, and publication rates.

Results identify the value of integrating ethnography as a means of knowing into psychological science. We discuss this with respect to value of ethnography for furthering cultural exploration in psychology and comment on training environments for ethnography in psychology.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnography
• ethnographic psychology
• psychology and fieldwork
• cultural psychology research methods

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Theodore T. Bartholomew

Theodore T. Bartholomew was an assistant professor of Counseling Psychology at Purdue University at the time this manuscript was completed but will be an assistant professor in Psychology and Africana Studies at Scripps College as of July 2019. His research interests include psychotherapy processes and outcomes (e.g., cultural factors, positive processes, and therapist effects), culturally diverse conceptualizations of mental illness and psychological healing, mental health in Namibia, refugee mental health, and the application of diverse methodologies in psychological research.

Jill R. Brown

Jill R. Brown is an Associate Professor of Psychological Sciences at Creighton University. Her research focuses primarily on culture, human development, adoption and kinship.