6) Participant observation

• Whyte's study of 'street corner society' was semi-overt. He revealed his purpose to a key member of the group, but not others
• Polsky, a good pool player, used his skills to gain entry to the world of the poolroom hustler
• Patrick joined a Glasgow gang because he looked quite young and knew one of the members
• Fairhurst found herself hospitalised by back troubles and used the opportunity to research being a patient
• Thornton studied the club and rave scene, initially met with suspicion
• Liebow gained acceptance by a black street-corner gang in Washington DC
• Griffin used sun lamp treatments to change his skin color and pass as black, experiencing racism in the Deep South of the USA
• Whyte refused all leadership roles except for secretary of the community club to take notes
• Punch over-identified with the patrol group he studied, even acting as a policeman himself
• Humphreys studied gay men's sexual encounters in toilets covertly
• Patrick almost got found out for buying a suit with cash and fastening the middle button of his jacket
• Festinger studied a religious sect that predicted the imminent end of the world
• Ditton studied theft among bread deliverymen, using toilets for observations which aroused suspicions
• Patrick abandoned the group without explanation, considered unethical
• Yablonsky noted that a teenage gang sees researchers with questionnaires as unwelcome representatives of authority
• Cicourel studied how policemen and probation officers categorize juveniles by making unconscious assumptions
• Wright faced antagonistic reactions due to her African Caribbean ethnicity while studying few black teachers
• Delamont emphasized the need to protect the identity of pupils in school observations
• King blended into the background in an infant school to avoid the Hawthorne effect
• Ball's question about the tall man hiding in the Wendy house may have influenced children's behavior, undermining observations
• Willis studied a core group of only 12 boys due to the time-consuming nature of gaining trust and carrying out observations