Object and Walking Probes in Ethnographic Interviewing

Probes and prompts are integral to successful interviews. Probes help motivate informants, facilitate the flow of an interview, and elicit information, but not necessarily in the form of a question. In this article, the authors describe a method they call the “material probe.” Material probes are no...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inField methods Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 200 - 204
Main Authors De Leon, Jason Patrick, Cohen, Jeffrey H.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications 01.05.2005
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Ethnography
Inanimate Objects
Interviews
Material culture
Memory
Methodology (Data Collection)
Nonverbal Communication
Research methods
Research Responses
interviewing
material culture
probes
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Summary:Probes and prompts are integral to successful interviews. Probes help motivate informants, facilitate the flow of an interview, and elicit information, but not necessarily in the form of a question. In this article, the authors describe a method they call the “material probe.” Material probes are nonverbal and include objects and places that prompt and motivate informants. The goal is not to learn about the object or place but instead to learn about the informant through the object or place. In essence, the “material probe” triggers a response or memory and can be used in specific and or general ways.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
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ISSN:1525-822X
1552-3969
DOI:10.1177/1525822X05274733