Overt observation

Question 1

Defintion

Answer 1

Observation within sociological research is generally regarded as the gathering of data by directly watching and recording the behaviour of people, usually, but not exclusively, in their everyday lives and in natural settings. Overt Participant Observation, involves the researcher being open with the group they are going to study. - Interpretivist

Question 2

Limitations

Answer 2

Time consuming
Can be costly to spend all this time observing in comparison to emailing people questionnaires for example.
interpreting data - How do you decide which observations - among many - are significant? Also human interaction is usually very complex - it is possible for the sociologist to misinterpret the significance of some forms of behaviour.
Any social group has many things happening at the same time. Significant evidence may be missed, leading to invalid interpretations of the group’s behaviour.
there is no way of measuring how the presence of the observer influences. Is the observer seeing “normal behaviour” or does the observer’s presence produce an unknown level of change in people’s behaviour? - the hawthorne effect

Question 3

advantages

Answer 3

the researcher won't "go native" (become so thoroughly-integrated into the group you're studying you cease to become an observer and simply become a participant).
Ethically sound (unlike covert observation) 
Gains qualitative data

Question 4

bulletpoints

Answer 4

realist
empathy
reflexivity 
seeing reality of social life
desirable responses
Respondent validation