Psychology Tma02 - 1554 Words

Compare and Contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study with that taken by William Corsaro. In this essay you will read about the many similarities and differences of the study and research of children’s friendships expectations, which were approached by Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) and William Corsaro (2006). Firstly I will introduce both of the different approaches and methods and I will then later go into the results of their work. I will later go on to talk about the problems with some of the methods and what could have been changed to solve these and lastly the similarities and differences between them both. Bigelow and La Gaipa in 1975 approached a study on children’s†¦show more content†¦William Corsaro wanted to explore more into how friendship changes and is meant in different places and different times, he wanted to look more into the communication of children with each other rather than have an interviewer. He made notes on the different activities of children and their interactions with each other, whilst video recording them, this is an example of an ethnographic approach. An ethnographic approach can be seen as better when it used with younger children which may not be good with words like elder children, also this way he could get a first-hand account of the Childs experiences. Corsaro had to find a way of blending in with the social groups without seeming inconspicuous, he believed that a way which has worked well in the past is observing and watching from a distant and waiting to be approached by children, for them to then invite you into the social group. He firstly observed a group of children of the age of three years old playing in a box and discovered in order to gain access to be invited to play together you need to already be friends or become friends. He then observed to three year old girls, Jenny and Betty and discovered that they became concerned about one another when one disappeared to play with someone else, Betty also reassures Jenny that they are still best friends. William Corsaro’s last observation slightly contradicts Bigelow and La Gaipa’s idea of showing concern of each other comes as you get older,Show MoreRelatedContent Analysis and Ethnographic Research in Decoding Children’s Understanding of Friendship1418 Words   |  6 Pagesnumber of studies regarding how children perceive friendship (Brownlow, 2012). Children may have different understandings of what friendship means to them depending on their age or where they live. Two methods used in this field are content analysis and ethnology. This essay will illustrate the similarities and differences between the two methods through the work of two groups of researchers. Content analysis was used by Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa, and ethnographic research was carried out byRead MoreDse141 Tma02 Essays1330 Words   |  6 PagesBrain Bigelow, John La Gaipa and William Corsaro have both made important contributions into understanding how children interpret â€Å"fri endship†. Bigelow and La Gaipa carried out one of the first studies from what was a very under researched area. Bill Corsaro, a key figure in childhood studies, was particularly successful in gaining access into young childrens worlds which has helped shape a further picture of this somewhat intriguing definition. Brace and Byford (2012) One similarity is that