Final answer:
Informant factual questions enquire about the characteristics of a social setting known well to the informant, essential for gaining cultural insight. Best practices in interviewing include a comfortable environment, consent for recordings, an emic perspective, and respecting the informant's rights and ownership of cultural information.
Step-by-step explanation:
Informant factual questions are those that ask people about the characteristics of a social setting or entity that they know well (option b). These questions are vital in fields like anthropology and sociology, as they help researchers gain insights into cultural patterns and social behaviors. A good informant is someone deeply conscious of multiple aspects of their culture, and qualitative data is often collected from them through interviews and questionnaires, typically within a comfortable setting for the informant such as their home.
Best practices for conducting an interview include creating a relaxed environment, ensuring the use of recording equipment is with consent, and avoiding leading questions that could compromise the reliability of the information provided. It's also crucial that researchers undertake interviews from an unbiased and emic perspective, which means viewing the culture from the inside rather than imposing an external judgment.
The concept of ownership of cultural information refers to respecting the rights of informants and acknowledging their authority over their own cultural narratives. Sociologists often use surveys to gather both qualitative and quantitative data about attitudes, behaviors, and factual information like employment status or education levels, understanding that the rights of study informants are paramount.