Compare and Contrast the Approach to Studying Children’s Friendships Taken in

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Compare and contrast the approach to studying children’s friendships taken in the Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study with that by William Corsaro. There are different ways to carry out research and gather information. This essay will look at different approaches into the study of children’s friendships. To do so, the studies on childhood friendships by Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) and William Corsaro will be used as examples. The different methods and approaches they used to gather the information will be discussed as will the comparisons and the findings of the two studies. When looking at both of the studies it is clear that both have an interest in studying children’s friendships, however, both go about this in very different ways. The study by Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) wanted to look at the ways children’s friendships developed and changed with age and at different developmental stages of their lives (Brownlow 2012, pg. 242). This is in contrast to the William Corsaro study, which is directed more towards looking at how children communicate with each other within their own social circle. He also studied children’s personal feelings towards friendships. In an interview with William Corsaro he said that his aim was to understand what the experience of childhood and friendship was like from a child’s point of view (Interview with William Corsaro 2010). From reading this it is clear that although the researchers were all interested in studying children’s friendships, they were looking at it from completely different angles. The Bigelow and La Gaipa (1975) study is a more general look at the subject in contrast to the Corsaro study which seems to be a more personal and individual based study. He wanted to know what it was like to be a child from a child’s point of view. (Brownlow 2012, pg. 250) Corsaro used ethnography as a means of gathering information.
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