senior thesis
It Will Always Be There
Research Methods
Besides my own personal experiences during the last four years, my primary research tool was interview. I conducted ten semi-structured interviews over a period of five months. Four were carried out at my house, four at neutral locations (restaurants), one in the office of the interviewee, and one over the telephone. They lasted an average of one hour each, and each was tape-recorded.
In addition to interviews, I sent out surveys via e-mail in October. I did not get a wide response to the surveys, so they were mainly useful to gain background information from people who I could not interview personally, as well as various ideas about group structure. I also carried out informal observation at group events throughout the year, videotaped observation at the reunion in February, and many informal conversations with RHPers. While most of the quotations are from the structured interviews, informal conversations contributed most of my background information.