Table Of ContentDiary Methods
SERIES IN UNDERSTANDING STATISTICS
S. NATASHA BERETVAS Series Editor
SERIES IN UNDERSTANDING MEASUREMENT
S. NATASHA BERETVAS Series Editor
SERIES IN UNDERSTANDING QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
PATRICIA LEAVY Series Editor
Understanding Statistics Video as Method
Exploratory Factor Analysis Anne M. Harris
Leandre R. Fabrigar and
Focus Group Discussions
Duane T. Wegener
Monique M. Hennink
Validity and Validation
The Internet
Catherine S. Taylor
Christine Hine
Diary Methods
Understanding Measurement Lauri L. Hyers
Item Response Theory
Oral History
Christine DeMars
Patricia Leavy
Reliability
Using Think- Aloud Interviews and
Patrick Meyer
Cognitive Labs in Educational Research
Jacqueline P. Leighton
Understanding Qualitative Qualitative Disaster Research
Research Brenda D. Phillips
Autoethnography
Fundamentals of Qualitative Research
Tony E. Adams, Stacy Holman Jones,
Johnny Saldaña
and Carolyn Ellis
Duoethnography
Qualitative Interviewing
Richard D. Sawyer and Joe Norris
Svend Brinkmann
Analysis of the Cognitive Interview in
Evaluating Qualitative
Questionnaire Design
Research: Concepts, Practices, and
Gordon B. Willis
Ongoing Debates
Jeasik Cho
Lauri L. Hyers
D I A RY M E T H O D S
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hyers, Lauri L., author.
Title: Diary methods / Lauri L. Hyers.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017023281 | ISBN 9780190256692 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Qualitative research—Methodology. | Diaries. |
Narrative inquiry (Research method) | Social sciences—Methodology.
Classification: LCC H62.H895 2018 | DDC 001.4/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017023281
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
CHAPTER 1 Introduction: The Emergence of the Diary as a Research Tool 1
CHAPTER 2 Diary Data Collection as a Qualitative Research Method 27
CHAPTER 3 Qualitative Diary Research Design 61
CHAPTER 4 Analyzing and Writing a Report on Qualitative Diary Research 103
CHAPTER 5 Putting It All Together: Planning, Evaluation, and Ethics of Qualitative
Diary Research 139
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Preface
Among the many choices of methods available to qualitative
researchers, the diary method is distinct for its capacity to cap-
ture phenomena of interest on a regular basis, in context, and over
time. Apart from that, the method is as flexible as other qualita-
tive methods and can be adapted to suit a variety research ques-
tions, diarists (a.k.a. “participants”), data formats, epistemological
assumptions, and styles of analysis. Whether the diaries are located
in preexisting archives or solicited from participant recruits, the
resulting data can be rich and compelling. However, a qualitative
diary study is usually not the first choice of research design when
one is considering a new line of research. In addition to sound-
ing like a whole lot of work, the diary method is somewhat off
the beaten path, a bit mysterious, and even kitschy. Researchers
typically view the very possibility of conducting a diary study with
great reticence, perhaps peering skeptically at the method from
the corner of one eye. Despite such resistance, many qualitative
researchers have adopted the diary method with great success.
With a little better understanding of what is involved, those who
are hesitantly considering the method may also come to find that
a diary study is well worth their while.
viii : Preface
There are several contemporary trends in the sensibilities of
the popular culture and human science discourse that quite nicely
overlie the perspective offered in many diary studies. In fact, we
are living in an era that not only speaks to but depends on the very
data that a diary creates— an immediate snapshot of a moment.
First, with new social media and digital technology, there has been
an explosion of attention to the online, in the moment, “live” indi-
viduals, and their everyday lives. This new technologically assisted
self-f ocus is evident in the popularity of obsessively documenting
our thoughts, behaviors, and social engagements. Web- based elec-
tronic scrapbooking on social media and wireless lifestyle tracking
devices have engendered “digital narcissism” and the cyber- teth-
ered self (Tanner, Maher, & Fraser, 2013). Privacy is replaced with
welcomed intrusion by others into our daily lives. We invite oth-
ers to monitor it all. It now seems somewhat quaint that diary
researchers in decades past worried that solicited diary partici-
pants would be encumbered by reporting on their lives while they
were trying to live them. This has now become a cultural norm.
Second, society is more concerned than ever about records. In
the 1985 movie Brazil, directed by Terry Gilliam, bureaucracy has
engulfed citizens in piles of churning paperwork. Although much
of our documentation is in electronic rather than paper form
today, we have expanded the amount and frequency of what we
document exponentially— in our personal lives, in the workplace,
and in educational settings. This is partly fueled by our markedly
litigious and fact-c hecking culture. The scientific method and the
ease of accessing data have led us to become very meticulous about
keeping track of our sources and employing only evidenced- based
solutions to life’s questions. With cyber documentation (Jones,
2016), we generate records that not only store the past but make
it available to change the future. Diary researchers stand to gain
when regular citizens are not only amenable to, but even perhaps
psychologically addicted to, chronic documentation, as they wind
up doing much of the work for us, and with pleasure.
Third, the scientific method has become more precise than ever.
Even with social-s cientific phenomena, we are able to examine
microphenomena, eyeblinks, response time, covert cognitions, and
brain waves to the millisecond. We can literally freeze time to break
down all sorts of implicit and unconscious processes. Computer
assisted statistics, fine-t uned measurements, and carefully crafted
Preface : ix
operational definitions help isolate cause-a nd-e ffect relationships
and frame rigorous conclusions. This kind of thinking is useful for
diary researchers, as the diary method offers a more precise snap-
shot of events in context—s tate phenomena—t hat cross-s ectional
trait measurements just cannot reveal. This, in fact, has motivated
my own use of the diary in research. As a feminist social construc-
tionist, I have been compelled to devote the better part of my aca-
demic scholarship thus far working with colleagues to document
everyday incidents of discrimination that one would typically for-
get (e.g., Hyers, 2010; Hyers & Hyers, 2008; Hyers, Swim, & Mallet,
2006; Swim, Cohen, & Hyers, 1998). At times, the diarists and the
readers themselves have dismissed daily discrimination as trivial or
harmless, but the chronic nature of these events, written in endless
diary entries by diligent research participants, reveals the frequency
and therefore the sociopsychological gravity of everyday prejudice
and its weight in reifying social stratification.
Fourth, and perhaps in response to each of these aforemen-
tioned trends, there is a countercultural resistance in the form of
the “slow knowledge” or “slow science” movements (Orr, 2002).
There is a desire to retreat, to unplug, and to become more con-
templative. A nostalgic return to simpler times makes the good
old-f ashioned diary seem like a welcome means to a more holistic
understanding of the self and others.
Considering these cultural forces, it seems like diary research
will continue to be used as it has in the past by a steady minor-
ity of researchers. It may, in fact, even increase in popularity.
Technology will continue to change the significance of the diary
in daily life and as a tool of social science research. In this vol-
ume, the diary as a cultural phenomenon will first be explored, as
well as how it came to be used by researchers. Following this will
be a discussion of the archival and solicited diary in qualitative
research in particular. Next, the basics of designing an archival and
solicited qualitative diary study will be reviewed. Analyzing and
writing (. . . and analyzing and writing and analyzing and writ-
ing and analyzing and writing . . .) will be discussed next. Finally,
the strengths, weaknesses, and ethical considerations of qualitative
diary research will be explored.
