Diary 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 3 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. 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 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by WebCom, Inc., Canada 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.