Methodological Issues

Abstract

“It’s the same, only it’s different.” This sounds like one of former American baseball player Yogi Berra’s malapropisms. Nevertheless, it is appropriate when discussing methods of disaster research. Fifty years ago, Lewis Killian (2002 [1956]) stated it this way: “Basically, the methodological problems of field studies in disasters are those common to any effort to conduct scientifically valid field studies in the behavioral sciences. The disaster situation itself, however, creates special or aggravated problems.. ” (p. 49). The basic tools of disaster researchers—a theory, a working hypothesis, an appropriate research design, a plan for selecting cases for study, a strategy for gathering data or recording observations, and a way to extract meaning from the materials collected—are easily recognizable as those used in all of the social sciences. Yet, issues specific to disaster research need to be addressed.