Tma 02 Part 1: Essay Write an Essay of 1500 Words on: Compare and Contrast How Content Analysis and Ethnographic Research Have Been Used to Study Children’s Understanding of Friendship.

The understanding of friendship and the complexities of emotions, expectations and boundaries has been researched only relatively recently. This essay will look at the studies conducted by Brian Bigelow and John La Gaipa in 1975 and William Corsaro, 1985, into what friendship means to children. It will compare and contrast the significant similarities and differences the research contained in of the friendships that children create and maintain and the conclusions that were drawn from it. The groundbreaking topic of the research area into children’s friendships was undertaken from two different perspectives and methodology. Bigelow and La Gaipa gathered their information in essay form from a well balanced sample group and converted the information to fit their predetermined Content analysis, a quantative data collection (Brownlow, 2010, page 243). Whilst Corsaro used an Ethnographic approach which used qualitative data collections taken during real time play where he was accepted into the company of the children and gained pragmatic understanding of the interactions between, and dynamics of, the friendships.                                                                                                                                                                                  
There are three accepted parameters for friendships, these are
• That they are equally beneficial
• Equally enjoyable
• And both parties have fun and affection for the other
Bigelow and La Gaipa decided upon twenty one criteria that their study should meet and the study relied on the children’s essays matching this. Thirty boys and thirty girls, between the ages of six and fourteen, to write an essay about their same sex best friend. The children were all from the same area in Canada and from eight schools and were asked what they expected from the friendship in order to determine what the expectations were and how they changed during adolescence. They studied 480 essays which...