Tape Recorded Research: Some Field and Data Processing Problems

Abstract

Tape recorders are being used with ever increasing frequency in the investigation of a wide variety of social scientific problems. Sociologists, public opinion specialists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, linguists, social and clinical psychologists, family counselors, and social workers have reported the use of electronic and mechanical recording devices in their work. In the past, however, the employment of recorders was confined primarily to the clinical or counseling situation; only recent years have witnesses a rapid expansion of their use in field research. In this article the authors describe some of the problems involved in using recorders in the field and make suggestions based on their four-year experiences in using the machines on the Disaster Project of the National Opinion Research Center.