Strengths and Weaknesses of the Qualitative Methodology

Cottes study primarily deals with the Economic, Symbolic and luxuriant motives of drama (2-3). Her rule is centered on ethnographic Participant utterance (1). The study was conducted on a Northeastern casino (10) for 90 hours that was lay in through 30 visits between October 1995 and March 1996 (9). This critique will undertake on the analysis of Cottes Literature Review, Research Design and Methods and Subjects elect for the study. Literature Review Cottes literature reassessment tackles the economic, symbolic and voluptuous motives of amateur gambling.With an emphasis centered on Experiential Consumption (6) which explains the percentage of motives in man behaviors and decisions, the paper was able to professional personve its point that the human drive to jeopardize stems out from the desire to learn and evaluate the plunk for (12), to have a feeling of a rush (14), to demonstrate egotism definition such as being a variety-seeker, rebel, and casino pro (15), to fulfill the desire to be a risk-taker (18) and to view cognitive self classification that is primarily achieved through interpersonal relationships (19).Similarly, the study reveals that urge for stirred self classifications are also evident (19) similarly, human competition (20) and communion (21) are also part of the characteristics that were studied. The papers main check for the reservoirs literature review is Cotte, by opting to focus on the luxuriant aspect of gambling has established the claim that recreational gambling primarily is a result of emotion in its closely noncivilized sense and provides no rational explanation whatsoever on the conceit of recreational gambling.Cotte presented eight cells (12-21) which tells the reason in a form of dialogue between her (i. e. the researcher) or other concourse through overheard conversations or ruminations explaining wherefore people gamble. It could be significantly noted that Cotte have made diverse explanations linking th e results of the observation and or interview to her related literature and it appears that those explanations are only(prenominal) liked to the situations wherein there is an emphasis on the hedonistic drive (12-18).The source explained that the feeling of excitement, rush, the unknown etc are the primary reasons why people prolong on coming back to the casino and even bringing their families with them to gamble as well (18). However, the paper would like to assert that although the first some cells are significantly linked on the theories that the fountain used, the last deuce-ace cells were explained by the author in such an piercing manner that she suddenly inserts a surmise that in no way was she was able to extend on her literature review (19, 21).The Utilitarian Theory which definition is not established or discussed at all was inserted and was used to explain worked up self classification (19) and communing (21) . In virtue of its philosophical roots, the Utilitari an theory was introduced by JS Mill and is commonly known of having this maxim the greatest heart and soul of happiness for the greatest number of people. However, the paper would want to establish that the author coined a divergent concept to the theory by equating utilitarianism to rationalness which is definitely not the case.The paper acknowledges however that linguistics of course allows crowd to give a different meaning to a particular word. However, if this is the case, the author should have at least provided an operational definition on her review of related literature. Research Design and Methods The authors method is soft research focusing on Ethnographic Participant Observation (1). Her selective information gathering method was done primarily through unorganized interviews (Bailey, 1994) and observation (Holloway, 2002). The paper has two main criticisms (1) Un incorporate interviews are relatively abandoned to bias (Bailey, 1994, 195).The unstructured interview wherein the interviewer has the advantages of probing her subjects more has a graduate(prenominal) degree of possibility to be interpreted in a different manner than what the subjects really intend it to be (195). Also, in comparing the unstructured interview to the structured interview, Bailey argued that the mere situation that a highly structured interview has a neatly typed questionnaire is easy to code, and seems to be reliable does not ensure that the information gather will be superior to that gathered with an unstructured interview (195).(2) The second criticism of the paper is that observations that are primarily documented through field notes and should be in four types condensed account, the expand account, the fieldwork journal, and analysis and interpretation notes (Holloway, 2002, 135). However, it could be noted that the author has made scant(p) on her paper that she only has field notes (which is a generalized note) and introspections (10) for her information g athering. Holloway (2002) by quoting Spradley (1979) on her book explained that it is necessary that all of these field notes should be done by any researcher who will use the Ethnographic method.However, the paper also recognizes the advantages of the unstructured research. It is also noted by Bailey (1994) that virtually cases reveal that unstructured interviews have the capability of eliciting more favorable responses from its subjects. The fact that the interview is more informal in its setting and is generally friendly, most researchers are able to get the innermost feelings of their subjects that the subjects on the other passel might not consciously realize that they possess.Similarly, the descriptive ethnography method (Holloway, 2002) is capable of presenting an account of a particular behavior on a specific area or industry. Similar on the case of the recreational gamblers in the northeast, the author was able to present what type of recreational gamblers those people ar e going in that casino. Cottes output as she give tongue to on the latter part of her paper could be grounds for interrupt and improved researches. Subjects of the Study The subjects of the study are randomly chosen.As evident on the research conducted, the author claims that most of the data gathered are from abrupt conversations, overheard conversations and observations. Hence, the paper claims that there is no way that the author could further roam if the same emotions or motives still apply after that particular mean solar day or the days after that particular study. Similarly, the context of the study (Holloway, 2002) that is in Northeast America does not allow the studys resultant to be extended to other locations or cultural contexts. ConclusionThe paper would say that the authors attempts to verify that recreational gamblers motivations in gambling are primarily driven by their hedonistic motives are successful. However, there should be enough detail that should be give n in terms of the literatures completeness, further efforts to make the methodology more valid and a more diverse choosing of the respondents. Literature Cited Holloway, I. (2002). soft Research Methods in Public Relations and Marketing Communications. London Routledge. Bailey K. (1994). Methods of affable Research. New York The Free Press.