Research Methods - Participant Observation

• Participant observation


  The researcher actually takes part in an event or the everyday life of the group while observing it
• Non-participant observation


  The researcher simply observes the group or event without taking part in it
• Overt observation


  The researcher makes their true identity and purpose known to those being studied
• Covert observation


  The study is carried out 'under cover'. The researcher's real identity and purpose are kept concealed from the group being studied
• Actual research does not always fit neatly into one or other of these categories
• In sociology most observation is unstructured participant observation
• Structured observation


  The researcher uses a structured observational schedule to categorise systematically what happens
• Observation may be used in conjunction with other methods, such as interviewing
• Gaining entry to the group being studied


  • Making the initial contact
  • Winning the trust and acceptance of the group
• The observer's role


  • Should not disrupt the group's normal activities
  • Should offer a good vantage point for making observations
• It is not always possible to take a role that is both unobtrusive and a good vantage point
• Staying in the group


  • Avoiding over-involvement and bias
  • Maintaining a balance between being an insider and an outsider
• The longer the researcher spends with the group, the less strange its activities may appear
• Getting out of the group


  • Leaving the group at the end of the study
  • Readjusting to the researcher's normal world
• Loyalty may prevent the researcher from revealing everything they have learnt, for fear of harming the group
• Overt observation


  The researcher reveals their true identity and purpose to the group and asks their permission to observe
• Advantages of overt observation


  • Avoids ethical problems of deception
  • Allows the researcher to ask naive but important questions
  • Allows the researcher to take notes openly
  • Allows the researcher to use interview methods
• Disadvantages of overt observation


  • The group may refuse permission
  • It risks creating the Hawthorne Effect
• Covert observation


  The researcher's real identity and purpose are kept concealed from the group being studied
• Practical advantages of covert observation


  • Reduces the risk of altering people's behaviour
  • May be the only way to obtain valid information on secretive activities
• Practical problems of covert observation


  • Requires the researcher to keep up an act and may call for detailed knowledge of the group's way of life
  • The researcher cannot take notes openly and must rely on memory
  • The researcher cannot ask naive but important questions or combine observation with other methods
  • The presence of a new member can still change the group's behaviour
• Covert participant observation raises serious ethical issues that often conflict with the practical advantages it brings
• The sociologist cannot usually take notes openly and must rely on memory and the opportunity to write them in secret
• Both Leon Festinger et al (1956) studying a religious sect that had predicted the imminent end of the world, and Jason Ditton (1977) studying theft among bread deliverymen, had to use toilets as a place for recording their observations in secret
• Thady the researcher


  Cannot ask save but important questions or combine observation with other methods, such as interviews
• Pretending to be an insider rather than an outsider


  • Reduces the risk of the Hawthorne Effect, but the addition of a new member can still change the group's behaviour, thus reducing validity
• Covert participant observation raises serious ethical (moral) issues. These often conflict with the practical advantage it brings of observing natural behaviour
• Researchers should obtain the informed consent of the subjects, and reveal the purpose of the study and the uses to which its findings will be put. With covert observation, this cannot normally be done, at least until the end of the research
• Covert observers may have to lie about their activities, and may have to simply abandon the group without explanation at the end of their research
• Covert observers may have to participate in immoral or illegal activities as part of their 'cover' role, and may also be witnesses to such activities, for which they may have a moral or legal duty to intervene or to report them to the police
• Validity


  • What people say they do when asked in a questionnaire and what they actually do in real life, are not always the same thing. Participant observation can obtain rich qualitative data that provides a picture of how people really live
• Insight


  • Participant observation allows the researcher to gain empathy through personal experience, and to gain insight into the group's way of life, their meanings and viewpoints, their values and problems
• Flexibility


  • Participant observation gives the researcher a more open-ended approach because it shows us what people do rather than simply what they say they do. It allows the researcher to discover new explanations and change direction to follow them up
• Practical advantages


  • Participant observation enables the sociologist to build a rapport with the group and gain its trust, which has proved a successful method of studying delinquent gangs, football hooligans, thieves, drug users, religious sects and other 'outsider groups'
• Participant observation can also be used in situations where questioning would be ineffective, such as studying how police and probation officers categorise juveniles by making unconscious assumptions
• Participant observation is time-consuming, requires the researcher to be trained to observe sociologically significant aspects, and can be personally stressful and demanding
• Participant observation often focuses on relatively powerless groups who are less able to resist being studied, such as petty criminals
• Covert participant observation in particular raises serious ethical difficulties, including deceiving people in order to obtain information about them and participating in illegal or immoral activities
• In participant observation studies, the group studied is usually very small and the sample is often selected haphazardly, which does not provide a sound basis for making generalisations
• Participant observation usually produces qualitative data, which can make comparisons with other studies difficult and is unlikely to produce reliable data