Participant observation

• Definition of observation - 'an act of recognising and noting a fact or occurrence often involving measurement with instruments' or 'a record or description so obtained'.
• Observation refers to a method in which researchers study the ongoing behaviour of their participants (or subjects). Is different from techniques such as interviews or questionnaires because observations are a study of what subjects do instead of what they say.
• Observation is primary research method. Primary research - personally collecting the data or information being studied. Is the opposite of the secondary research method, where researchers choose to study data that has already been collected before their study beings.
• Types of observation:

  • Covert research - the research participants don't know who the researcher is, or that there's even a research there at all.
  • Overt research - the research participants are all aware of the researcher's presence and their role as an observer.
• Participant observation:

  Researcher integrates themselves into a group to study their way of life, their culture, and how they structure their community. Technique is commonly used in ethnography (the study of the way of life of a group or community).
• Participant observation:

  • fact that researchers have to be integrated into group's way of life means that they need to find a way to be let into the community.
  • Many communities don't want to be studied. So researcher cane either earn trust of certain members and seek permission to study their way of life (overt), or researcher can pretend to become a member of the group to gain access to information (covert).
• Conducting participant observation:

  • researcher should focus on capturing an accurate and authentic account of community's way of life. Means that the researcher has to avoid influencing the behaviour of anyone in the group.
  • simply observing crown isn't enough, researcher might need to ask some questions. If conducting covert research, might enlist informant. Informant will be aware of the researcher's presence and can answer questions that aren't addressed by observation alone.
• Conducting participant observation:

  • Taking notes is more difficult when they're acting covertly. It's common for researchers to pop into bathroom to make a quick note of something important, or summarise their daily observations every evening. Where researcher' presence is known, is relatively simple for them to take notes, because they don't need to hide fact that they're conducting research.
• Theoretical framework:

  • Observational research falls under the paradigm of interpretivism (Interpretivists believe that social behaviour can only be studied and explained subjectively. Is because different people, in different contexts, interpret the world in different ways).
  • Interpretivists value participant observation because researcher has opportunity to understand the subjective experiences and meanings of the group being studied. Researchers can achieve higher levels of validity by observing actions and getting a sense of what hey mean to the people who are carrying them out.