ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how humans develop cultural norms, including beliefs and behaviours, and discusses how aspects of these cultural beliefs and behaviours can be observed and studied. We learn about our culture from the moment we are born. Indeed, the process is known as enculturation. Culture itself probably cannot be studied in isolation, and is therefore usually explored by studying people from other cultures, usually through the use of qualitative research methods. The debate about quantitative and qualitative research approaches in nursing has become rather polarised in recent years, with claims being made in some circles that the only 'right' approach is through the use of qualitative methods. The 'realist' ethnographers in the early 20th century often seemed to assume that describing behaviour was in many ways sufficient in the quest to describe culture. The readers of an ethnographic study involving cultural issues are likely to be student nurses from various cultures, nurse educators, other researchers and academics.
