Observation

• Non-participant observation:

  • When the researcher watches the group without taking an active part in the activities
  • Overt/covert
• Strengths of non-participant observation :

  • Detailed data
  • High validity - research life experiences of group
  • Verstehen achieved
  • Builds rapport + trust
  • Flexibility
• Limitations of non-participant observation:

  • Lacks reliability
  • Researcher effects - Alters dynamic of group
  • Time consuming
  • Small scale
  • Can't generalise
• Example studies non-participant observation :

  • Smith + Grey - London metropolitan police
  • Atkinson - coroners inquests into suicide
  • Gilborn - race ethnicity + education
• Cult of masculinity -

  • Smith + Grey
  • Revealed stories of fighting, violence, conversations of sexual conquests + feats of drinking formed a cult of masculinity
• Atkinson focuses:

  • how coroners categorise deaths about the typical suicide
  • Including what kind of person commits suicide, for what reasons, typical mode/ place of death
  • He concludes coroners have a common sense theory about the typical suicide
  • Life history, death note, location + circumstances, mode of death
• Participant observation:

  • Researcher plays active role in group. Become part of the group
  • Overt / covert
• Strengths of participant observation:

  • Detailed data
  • High validity
  • Verstehen achieved
  • Builds rapport and trust
  • Flexibility
• Limitations of participant observation :

  • Lacks reliability
  • Researcher effects - change dynamic of group
  • Time consuming
  • Small sample
  • Can't generalise
• Example studies of participant observation :

  • Bill whyte - street corner society
  • Paul Willis - learning to labour
  • Simon Hold away - inside the British police
• Bill Whyte - street corner society :

  • a study about social interaction, networking and everyday life among young Italian- American men in Boston's North End
  • The unit briefly discusses the lives of the street gangs called the 'corner boys' as well as their interactions with the racketeers + politicians
• Paul Willis - learning to labour : 

  • Relate the findings of his ethnographic study of WC boys at a secondary school in england
  • Willis explains the role of youths culture and socialising as mediums by which schools route WC students into WC jobs
• Simon Holdaway - inside the British police :

  • This is a view of the British police at work Simon Holdaway
  • once a a police sergeant + now a lecturer in sociology, undertook much of the research while still in uniform
  • Working within a busy ciy station, he was able to record the day-to-day frustrations, boredom and excitement of ordinary policemen.
• Overt :

  • Researcher makes participants aware that they're being observed
  • Participant / non-participant
• Strengths of overt :

  • Rich detailed data
  • High validity
  • Informed consent gained
  • Researcher doesn't have to fit in with the group
  • Objectivity
• Limits of overt :

  • Lacks reliability
  • hawthorne effect
  • Time consuming
  • Small scale
  • Can't generalise
• Hawthorne effect:

  • when subjects of a study change/improve their behaviour as its being studied
• Example studies of overt :

  • Venkatesh - gang leader for a day
  • Hargreaves - setting + streaming
• Covert :

  • Researcher goes undercover + the people observed are unaware of it
  • Participant/non-participant
• Covert strengths:

  • Lack of researcher effect
  • Detailed data
  • High validity
  • Access to secret/unconscious behaviour of group
• Covert limitations:

  • Lacks reliability
  • Breach of privacy
  • Lack of informed consent
  • Subjective
  • Time consuming
  • Hard to gain access
  • Small sample
• Covert study examples :

  • Laud Humphreys - tearoom trade
  • Hobbs - police attitudes
  • Patrick - a Glasgow gang observed
• Laud humphreys tearoom study :

  • Analysis of men who participate in anonymous sex with men in public lavatories
  • Found 45% of the men had wifes
• Hobbs - police attitudes :

  •  He studied the police using the perspective of the petty criminals who also formed part of his research
  • Hobbs situated his research within the context of the development of the British police and the CID + the economic history of the East End of London.
• Patrick - a Glasgow gang observed :

  • James Patrick, went undercover with the help of one of his pupils to study the often violent behaviour of the teenagers in a gang in Glasgow