Observations (20)

Question 1

Ethnographic Studies

Answer 1

The way of life of a group of people from their point of view and so appeal most to interpretivist sociologists.
The purpose of research is to describe the culture and lifestyle of the group of people being studied and to be as faithful as possible to the way the members see it themselves.
Ethnography is an in-depth study of the way of life of a group of people.

Question 2

Observations

Answer 2

Observation is the main type of ethnographic approach.
Are commonly associated with the collection of qualitative data that is rich and meaningful and subsequently high in validity.
Also naturalistic as observed in a natural environment.

Question 3

Four Types of Observation

Answer 3

1. ) Partipant Observation
2. ) Non-Partipant Observation
3. ) Covert Observation
4. ) Overt Observation

Question 4

Partipant Observations

Answer 4

Where the researcher joins in with the group being studied and observes their behaviour.

Question 5

Non-Partipant Observations

Answer 5

Where researchers take a ‘fly on the wall approach’ and observes individuals and groups without getting involved in the life of the group.

Question 6

Covert Observation

Answer 6

Where the group being studied does not know they are being observed, or where the research goes ‘undercover’.

Question 7

Overt Observation

Answer 7

Where the group being studied know they are being observed.

Question 8

Reliability

Answer 8

Is an issue with overt and covert research.
No way of finding out if the information is true as it is impossible to repeat.
The success of this research is often dependent on the personality of sociologist and the relationships that they develop while investigating. Another sociologist doing the same thing may produce different results due to these variables.

Question 9

Reliability Criticism Response

Answer 9

These criticisms did lead ethnographers to developing scientific procedural rules to improve reliability by having more than one researcher to verify but inter-rater reliability is only useful in very structured non-participant observations.
Non-participant observation can be structured to use a coded observation schedule. Produces facts and quantifiable data that is replicable.
Ultimately low as hard replicate

Question 10

Reliability Example (Bandura)

Answer 10

Bandura (1965) Used a fly on the wall approach while investigating aggression. Observed the children aggressive behaviour and consistently came back with inter-rater reliability rates 99%.

Question 11

Representativeness

Answer 11

Lack because they are very exotic and not average people being studied.
The number of people is quite small as can’t observe masses of people so it hard to generalise findings to members of similar groups
Sociologists who use quantitative research methods study large, carefully selected, representative samples that provide a sound basis for making generalisations, In contrast, the groups used in participant observation studies are usually unrepresentative, because they are accessed through snowball sampling and thus haphazardly selected

Question 12

Validity

Answer 12

Highly valid.
The researcher-observer sees things through the eyes and actions of the people in the group. The researcher is placed in exactly the same situation as the group under study and experiences what the group experiences. Life is therefore seen from the same perspective as the group. As a result of this closeness to the group, the sociologist experiences ‘verstehen’; this means that the sociologist can empathise with the group, and understand why members of the group act the way that they do because the sociologist has experienced the same situation.
Joining in allows the researcher to gain empathy through personal experiences. This closeness to people’s reality means that participant observation can give uniquely personal, authentic data. You can observe what people do, not what they say they do – In contrast to most other methods, participant observation allows the researcher to see what people do rather than what people say they do. More likely to record the truth.
Flexibility and generating new ideas when completing questionnaires researchers begin with pre-set questions. Can gain insight by asking for clarification.

Question 13

Participant Observation Validity

Answer 13

Takes place in natural settings so respondents act more naturally than in a laboratory, or during a more formal interview. This should mean the Hawthorne effect will be less, especially with covert research. You also get more of a feel for respondents’ actions in context, which might otherwise seem out of place if in an artificial research environment.

Question 14

Validity Issues

Answer 14

Method lacks objectivity. It can be very difficult for the researcher to avoid subjectivity and forming biased views of the group being studied. Also, researchers decide what is significant and worth recording and what’s not, therefore, it depends on the values of the researcher. In extreme cases, researchers might ‘go native’, where they become sympathetic with the respondents and omit any negative analysis of their way of life.
Rock suggests that if the group that a sociologist is observing no longer surprises them or shocks them the researcher has lost objectivity and the research should end.

Question 15

Hawthorne Effect (Mayo)

Answer 15

The threat to validity. where people act differently because they know they are being observed, although participant observers would counter this by saying that people can’t keep up an act over long time periods: they will eventually relax and be themselves.

Question 16

Hawthorne Effect Example (Venkatesh)

Answer 16

Venkatesh: Overcome the problems of quantitative studies of poverty and ‘the poor’ through immersing himself in the world of the projects and the people who inhabit them. There are still the problems of validity. Throughout the study it is clear that Venkatesh is at the mercy of his ‘key informants’, who will only show him what they want him to see. Over an extended period of time what he is allowed to witness becomes increasingly close to reality but he is still often at ‘arms length’ of the people who he is studying. He would always be an outsider.

Question 17

Practical Considerations of Observations

Answer 17

Participant observation might be the only methods for gaining access to certain groups
May take month or years and are very expensive and recording issues-as can forget to record straight away
Researchers need to maintain a balance between being an insider, i.e. getting close to the subjects and establishing a rapport, and being an outsider, i.e. adopting the professional role of a detached observer who can avoid getting too emotionally involved with the group. As Brewer notes, ‘ethnographers earn people’s trust by showing a willingness to learn their language and their ways, to eat like they eat, speak like they speak and do as they do’ but that trust takes time, and consequently researchers may have to spend considerable periods of time in the field so that people get used to their presence.
It is also important to understand that the choice of whether to use covert observation is often shaped by the social characteristics of the research team. The social class, gender, age and ethnicity of the researcher may make it impossible to infiltrate particular situations; for example, males are excluded from exclusively female situations or groups and vice versa.

Question 18

Practical Considerations of Observations (Gatekeepers)

Answer 18

Participant observation, particularly the overt type, is dependent on a gate-keeper, that is, a person who can smooth the entry of a sociological observer into a social group. Fielding (2001) argues that gatekeepers are ‘the unsung heroes of ethnography’ because they can speak to a group beforehand and allay their suspicions about the researcher. In essence, they sponsor and validate the researcher and the research. However, Fielding also notes that it is important to also understand that some, especially institutional gatekeepers, may have an agenda of their own – that is, they may wish to control what is observed.

Question 19

Ethical Problems

Answer 19

Research can also pose a danger to the researcher/Qualitative research demands an immersive understanding of individuals’ lives and social settings and uses research methods that draw researchers into close relationships with their research subjects. Consequently researchers can suffer emotional harm, and the majority of the reports from researchers posted onto our inquiry’s website were concerned with emotional, not physical, harm.
Covert observation can sometimes pose great danger to the sociologist. The African-Caribbean sociologist Ken Pryce was actually murdered while attempting to carry out a participant observation study of organised drug crime
Ethical problems are mainly limited to Covert Participant Observation, in which respondents are deceived and thus cannot give informed consent to participate in the research.
Legality can also be an issue in covert research where researchers working with deviant groups may have to do illegal acts to maintain their cover.

Question 20

Ethics Example (Humphrey)

Answer 20

Humphreys’ study led people to question whether a researcher should be allowed to collect sensitive data under a false identity to prevent distorting the phenomena being studied.
In addition, after publishing the study, the public expressed concern over whether a researcher should be allowed to collect data which has the potential to jeopardize the safety of the subjects if it is revealed to the public.
But publicly identifying oneself as a social researcher while observing the interaction between men who prize their anonymity in a tearoom would produce drastically different results than presenting oneself as a trusted ‘watchqueen’.
However, there were about a dozen subjects to whom Humphreys revealed his true identity in order to gain assistance in conducting the study, learning the rules, and locating tearooms
Vowed he would never reveal the identities of his subjects so as to protect them from being arrested for engaging in homosexual acts in public and to prevent knowledge of their tearoom activities from threatening the stability of their families. At the time of this study, anti-sodomy laws were enforced nationwide.
He recorded the names, license plate numbers, and addresses of around 100 men. He also bore witness to their illegal activity. In the event that law enforcement saw fit to arrest Humphreys for conducting this controversial study, the sensitive data he meticulously collected would be demanded by the authorities.

Question 21

Theoretical Perspective on Observations (Interpretivists)

Answer 21

What people say and what they actually do are very different. People lie, exaggerate, mislead and so on in questionnaires and interviews. Often people are not aware that they are acting in the way that they do. However, in observation studies, the sociologist can see what people really do and the truth is more likely to be recorded.
Supplemented by asking informal questions, though if the researcher is carrying out covert research, this might arouse suspicion and mistrust. Observers sometimes develop special relationships with key people within groups.
Researcher observes is first-hand and not the product of what he or she thinks is important, as is often the case with questionnaires and interviews. By watching and listening, a participant observer has the chance to discover the priorities and concerns as well as the meanings and definitions of the people being studied in their everyday natural contexts.
Observation produces qualitative rather than quantitative data about how people interpret
the world around them; the data gathered often ‘speaks for itself’ and gives real insight into people’s feelings, motives, experiences, attitudes.

Question 22

Theoretical Perspective on Observations (Positivists)

Answer 22

Researcher effect. This means that the presence of the observer may result in the group acting less ‘naturally’ because they are aware that they are being observed and studied. In Whyte’s study, Doc, the leader of the gang, said that he used to do things on instinct but now thought about how he was going to justify his actions to Whyte.
Get too close or attached to the group they are observing and consequently, their observations become biased. The observer becomes too sympathetic towards the group and ‘goes native’. Rock argues that a good observer should always be critical of the group they are studying (1999)
Observational studies are by their very nature micro-studies and cannot appreciate the influence and impact of structural factors such as social class or patriarchy on the research setting and those being observed.
Participant observation is often the epitome of ‘bad’ science, and that its design and data analysis breaches fundamental rules of scientific procedure. Positivists accuse observation studies of being unsystematic, unstructured and unreliable because they focus on naturally occurring behaviour. Positivists despair of the fact that observers make no attempt to control possible influential variables.
Observational evidence is often expressed in a qualitative
form, such as long quotations, extracts from conversations, field notes and so on which are not quantifiable and can be difficult to compare with each other or with other evidence. Therefore, positivists claim this type of data is too subjective.

Question 23

Conclusion

Answer 23

This approach has been very influenced by postmodernism, which argues that ethnography should not be concerned with the pursuit of some universal truth because, at best, accounts of social reality can only be relative, partial, partisan and selective truths. Specifically, postmodernists argue that ethnographic accounts are autobiographical that is, they only tell us about the researcher’s version of the observation, and they leave out other participants’ experience of it.

Question 24

Mac n Ghaill (Practical)

Answer 24

Already had access in his study Young, Gifted and Black as he was their teacher/Crossed boundaries

Question 25

Pryce (Ethics)

Answer 25

Murdered attempting to carry out a participant observation study of organised drug crime in the Caribbean