School of Sociology and Social Policy

Researching Families: Mixed Methods Approaches

23 April 2008 | 1.00pm to 2.00pm | Seminar

Beech Grove House, Seminar Room

All are welcome

Dr Jacqui Gabb
Lecturer in Sociology, The Open University
FLaG Visiting Academic and Timescapes
Affiliate, University of Leeds

Researching Families: Mixed Methods Approaches

In this paper I will demonstrate how the integration of different qualitative methods
produces a dynamic account of everyday intimacy in families. Mixing methods
generates multilayered, richly textured material on where, when and how intimacy is
experienced and why intimate interactions take on particular forms, values and
understandings. This paper draws on findings from my ESRC-funded methodological
project – Behind Closed Doors: Researching Intimacy and Sexuality in Families (RES
000 220854). In this study I used different methods to collect data on the sensual,
emotional and embodied interactions between parents, parents and children, and
siblings. I will illustrate how different methods produced data on different aspects of
family relationships. For example participant diaries illustrated patterns and routines of
interaction, household 'emotion maps' charted the spatial dimension of family
relationships, biographical narrative interviews accessed stories across life course
framed through participants' own emotional framework, vignettes and images generated
discussion around normative values. The richness of data from these methods,
especially innovative methods such as 'emotion maps', illustrates the benefits of
creativity in research design. Combined, these mixed-methods produced
comprehensive data on family's everyday sense making practices of intimacy. How
families define and negotiate the boundaries of appropriate and inappropriate conduct
and the processes through which social policy, cultural discourses and public debates
on sexuality in families emotionally and practically affect intimate experience and
relational ties.