Spradley Domain Analysis
Spradley's domain analysis is the first analytic step in James Spradley's Developmental Research Sequence for ethnography. It systematically searches interview and observation data for cultural domains — categories of meaning organized around a cover term and the more specific terms it includes — by looking for the semantic relationships, such as 'is a kind of' or 'is a way to,' that informants use to connect them. The goal is to discover how members of a culture organize their knowledge in their own words.
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Sources
- Spradley, J. P. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN: 9780030444968
- Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant Observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN: 9780030445019
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Spradley's Domain Analysis (Developmental Research Sequence). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/anthropology/spradley-domain-analysis
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- Componential Analysis (Ethnographic)Anthropology↔ compare
- Cultural Domain AnalysisAnthropology↔ compare
- Folk Taxonomy AnalysisAnthropology↔ compare