nonparticipant

• • non-participant - researcher simply observes the group or event without taking part eg 2 way mirror
• practical advantage

  • no personal skills required - interview doesn’t need to interfere with participants 

  ethical 

  • avoids deception - participants are aware they are being studied 

  theoretical

  • higher reliability - may follow a standardised structure which can be replicated by another researcher
• practical disadvantage

  • decreased opportunity of researching certain topics - researcher may be refused to study topics eg crime lowering sample size 

  ethical

  • participant may not feel they have a right to withdraw - may feel pressured to participate 

  theoretical

  • reduced validity - Hawthorne effect - participants may alternate behaviour due to awareness of being watched,, causing study to be less accurate