6. Personal Notes
As discussed earlier, personal feelings and emotional reactions become part of the data and color what a researcher sees or hears in the field. A researcher keeps a section of notes that is like a personal diary. She records personal life events and feelings in it (I am tense today, I wonder if it’ because of the fight I had yesterday with……)Personal notes serve three functions. They provide and outlet for a researcher and a way to cope with stress; they are a source of data about personal reactions; they give her a way to evaluate direct observation or inference notes when she rereads notes later. For example, if she was in a good mood during observations, it might color what she observed.