Field Research Approaches for Studying Values and Emotions: Centering Theory, Phenomenon or Personhood

This chapter focuses on qualitative research methods and addresses the question: how can researchers conduct fieldwork-based studies that generate empirical insights into the relationships between values and emotions? I propose that researchers can focus their attention on theory, phenomenon or personhood as pathways for potentially uncovering both/and insights. Collectively, these approaches—theory-centered, phenomenon-centered, and personhood-centered—represent different choices that field researchers can make about how and where to center their attention during empirical data collection and analysis. Each approach has important implications for the ways that values and emotions potentially show up in field data and are incorporated within the study’s analysis, emergent findings, and theoretical contributions. The chapter illustrates each approach, and associated advantages and disadvantages, using examples of published studies within a program of research on hospital emergency departments.