ABSTRACT
One unintended consequence of adopting qualitative research methods is that the researcher may become contaminated permanently, and unable to return to their previous perspectives on life. All new experiences are ‘turned into’ ethnographic research projects, because the research strategies used once become applied to all situations, especially new and/or stressful ones. When I had to go into hospital (for the first time in my life) for major surgery I took a notebook and kept fieldnotes, and eventually wrote a paper about the pollution beliefs of the women on the ward (Delamont, 1987b). This was a useful way to avoid boredom, relieve stress by being professional rather than powerless, and to provide data for a future paper. The survey method does not seem to affect people the same way, because it is not immediately applicable to all social situations. The data gathered during the stay in ‘Four Winds’ hospital were later used in a collection of papers, all of which were autobiographical pieces by sociologists, although I had not written the notes with publication in mind at the time.
