Doing Life Histories

The practical problems involved in interpretation of personal documents collected from life histories are briefly discussed. Technical problems in data collection may involve choice of data gathering method interviewing dealing with transcriptions and problems of validity and representativeness but analysis of data problems when doing life histories involves intervention that must be acknowledged as tampering with the data. The degree of interpretation of raw data must be recognized. The challenge is to transform sometimes thousands of pages of typed script interviews biographies diaries dreams and observations into a coherent valid and analytically sound presentation. Two major interpreters are the interviewee and the sociologist. The sociologist has his/her own theories and constructs. The analytical problem involves the determination of the extent to which the sociologist progressively imposes second-order constructs on the understandings of the subjects and the extent to which the subjects own rational constructions of the word are understood by the sociologist. The continuum of contamination ranges from the original transcripts to the edited personal document to systematic thematic analysis to verification by anecdotes and generation of sociological theories of labeling identity drive reduction or otherwise. The location of the sociological input on the continuum determines the extent of sociological imposition on the original data. In life history analysis the end of the continuum on theory building would not occur unless it involved the subjects own accounts. A sociologists verification by anecdotes does not allow for the subjects point of view because there is usually no justification given for why some quotes are used and what ones are discarded. Systematic thematic analysis more closely approximates the appropriate life history method of analysis.