Observation

• Participant Observation


  The researcher joins the group or social situation that is being studied. The aim is to understand what is happening from the point of view of those involved, to get inside their head and to understand the meaning that they give to their situation. The research is naturalistic, it is done in the natural setting and is not based on the artificial situation created by an interview or questionnaire. The research may take many months, or even years.
• Participant Observation


  • Overt - the researcher is open and the participants are aware they are involved
  • Covert - the researcher is undercover and the participants are not aware they are involved
• Overt Participant Observation


  • Whyte - Street Corner Society
  • Patrick - A Glasgow Gang Observed
• Covert Participant Observation


  • Griffin - Black Like Me
  • Venkatesh - Gang Leader for a Day
• Whyte wanted to research criminal activity in the USA and felt the most appropriate method to use was to conduct a Participant Observation, allowing him to observe the behaviour of a criminal gang, and uncover activities that would be unlikely to be discussed during interviews or in written questionnaire form.
• Whyte's research involved him spending time with a group of poor, inner-city males in Chicago, USA. He was significantly older than the members of the juvenile gang whose behaviour he wanted to study.
• Whyte's solution


  Conducting overt Participant Observation. The gang that Whyte observed were fully aware that he was observing them and he was able to gain the cooperation of the gang through their leader 'Doc', who vouched for him when the gang were curious about him.
• Whyte explained to the gang that he was writing a book, which seemed vague to the gang. The relationship between Doc and Whyte changed, with Doc becoming more and more a collaborator in the research rather than a key informant.
• Although Whyte told the group that he was observing them, he did not give them full details of the specific aim of his research. By telling the group he was "writing a book" Whyte was deliberately vague and this means that the participants were unable to give full informed consent.
• James Patrick, a teacher at an approved school in Scotland, took up the invitation by 'Tim', a sixteen-year-old juvenile offender, to come and see for himself what the 'score was' in the "Young team" (a Glasgow street gang of which 'Tim' was leader). Patrick, posing as 'Tim's' friend from the approved school, took up this challenge.
• Patrick met and joined the gang, and as his involvement with the gang deepened the hours lengthened and one weekend he spent time with the gang from seven o'clock on Friday evening until six on Sunday morning.
• Patrick recorded his observations about life in the gang, which were often violent and illegal. On one occasion Patrick created hostility as he was reluctant to carry a weapon, made worse as he took a back seat during some action. One gang member became a principal accuser and made jeering remarks at Patrick's expense.
• Patrick deliberately allowed some years to pass between the completion of his Observations and publication. The main reasons for the delay were his interest in self-preservation, his desire to protect the members of the gang and his fear of exacerbating the gang situation in Glasgow. Reasons of personal safety also dictate the use of a pseudonym (changing personal identifiers, such as names).
• Come dean


  Ask permission from a sponsor
• Gain access covertly


  Access the group without permission
• Researcher accepted by the group

  1. Come to terms with new norms, relationships and activities

  2. Understand the meanings these held for the people involved

  3. Require skill in questioning, watching, listening
• Getting out


  Exiting the research is a serious consideration
• When does research reach a conclusion? The whole essence of Participant Observation is that social life is an ongoing, dynamic process, so how do you decide that the 'story' has reached an end?
• Realistically, the end of research is more likely to be due to a range of factors such as a lack of funding or time constraints
• Whyte difficult to get in


  How to get out?
• A major ethical problem for sociological researchers is the extent to which a researcher should deceive people by pretending to be 'one of them'
• Deception can occur in both overt and covert observations
• All covert observers could be accused of being fundamentally dishonest. Simply by failing to inform groups that they are being observed, the researcher is being deceptive.
• Overt Participant Observations also raise ethical issues. By participating in the behaviour of the groups being studied, sociologists themselves often have to behave in ways that are deviant or criminal and may not be fully honest with the focus of their research.
• Patrick acted as a friend


  Gained access to the group
• Participant Observations are usually conducted on one small group, and therefore the findings may not be applicable to similar groups and will not reflect the wider population.
• As findings of Participant Observations only apply to the small group being studied the findings will lack representativeness and be unable to generalise, which Positivists would not favour.
• Whyte found that not all gangs are the same as the one he studied
• Non-Participant Observation


  The observer is watching but not involving themselves
• Non-Participant Observation is favoured by Interpretivists, as it generates detailed, in-depth data which reveal the meanings individuals attach to behaviour
• Overt Non-Participant Observation


  The observation is open and the participants are aware they are being observed
• Parker used Non-Participant Observation to observe a gang in Merseyside. He was twice their age so being a participant would have been difficult, however, he still found entry easy, possibly because he was young, hairy, boozy and willing to keep long hours 'giving the impression of being 'one of the lads'.
• The gang Parker observed was often involved in criminal activity, some of which was committed in front of him. Most of the crimes he observed were petty crimes, although there is no way of knowing whether more serious crimes took place, as it was known that the boys controlled their behaviour around him.
• Parker did frequently feel complicit in the position of engaging in criminal activity whilst in the gang, for example, he received stolen goods from the gang. He claimed that such involvement was necessary, although not ethical, if he was to maintain the trust, respect and friendship of the people he was researching.
• During his research, Parker frequently tried to stop gang members from engaging in criminal activity and provided legal advice to gang members charged with theft. However, although it was the ethical thing to do, by doing so he changed the groups' behaviour and therefore impacted the validity of the data.
• Covert Non-Participant Observation


  The researcher is undercover and the participants are not aware they are being observed
• Humphries wanted to research homosexuality further, gaining insight into individuals who engaged in such acts. Therefore, he chose to complete a covert Non-Participant Observation, observing homosexual behaviour in public toilets.
• Humphries adopted the role of a 'watchqueen' to avoid having to engage in the stigmatised behaviour of homosexuality.
• His role as a 'watchqueen' allowed him to access his target population, gain their trust and leave easily once data had been collected. Homosexuality was a sensitive topic in the 1960's, although it became a legal activity, many participants were in heterosexual marriages and homosexual acts were still frowned upon.
• Although Humphries did not engage in the homosexual activities, he witnessed several accounts of this at a time in society when it was seen as illegal and deviant. However, he failed to report this behaviour to the police when he had a responsibility to do so.