P1 Research Methods - Observations

Question 1

What is participant observations?

Answer 1

The researcher actually takes part in an event or the everyday lives of the group while observing it

Question 2

What is non participant observations?

Answer 2

The researcher simply observes the group or event without taking part in it e.g they may use a two way mirror to observe children playing.

Question 3

What is covert observations?

Answer 3

The study is carried out undercover, the researchers real identity and purpose are kept secret from the group being studied. The researcher takes on a false identity role

Question 4

What is overt observations?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is getting in to the group like?

Answer 5

To do this study, we must first fain entry to the group. Some groups are easier to enter than others.
- For example, joining a football crowd is likely to be easier than joining a criminal gang

Question 6

Making contact

Answer 6

Making the initial contact with the group may depend on personal skills, having the right connections or even pure chance

Question 7

How did Ned Polsky make contact with groups?

Answer 7

He was a good pool player himself, found his skill useful in gaining entry to the world of the poolroom hustler.

Question 8

How did James Patrick join a group?

Answer 8

He was able to join a Glasgow gang because he looked quite young and knew one of its members from having taught him in approved school

Question 9

Acceptance

Answer 9

To gain entry to a group, the researcher will have to win their trust and acceptance.

Question 10

What did Sarah Thornton do to be accepted?

Answer 10

She made friends with a key individual, Kate, in her study of the clubbing and rave scene.

Thornton was met with suspicion at first. As Kate’s brother put it “How do you know she won’t sell this to the Daily Mirror?”, but such barriers can sometimes be overcome.

Question 11

What did John Howard Griffin do to be accepted?

Answer 11

He was a white man who used medication and a sun lamp treatment to change his skin colour and pass as black.

He then travelled around South of USA experiencing first hand impact of racism.
In the Deep South at the time, public amenities (schools, hotels, transport and toilets) were all racially segregated and black people faced discrimination in housing jobs and political and civil rights.

Question 12

Observers Role

Answer 12

Getting in poses the question of what role the researcher should adopt. Ideally it should be:
- One that does not disrupt the groups normal patterns
- Offer a good vantage point from which to make observations

Question 13

What did Whyte do as the observer role?

Answer 13

He succeeded in achieving both the aims of the observer role by refusing leadership roles, with the on exception of secretary of the community club a position that allowed him to take ample notes under the disguise of taking the minutes of meetings

Question 14

What’s an example of the observers role?

Answer 14

It is not always possible to take a role that is both unobtrusive and a good vantage point.

Some roles may also involve taking sides in conflicts, with the result that the researcher may become estranged from one faction or the other, making observations more difficult

Question 15

What is staying in the group like?

Answer 15

Once accepted, the researcher needs to be able to stay in the group and complete the study.

Here we can see a key problem for the participant observer: having to be both involved in the group so as to remain objective and unbiased

Question 16

Going native

Answer 16

One danger of staying in the group is that of becoming over involved or going native.

By over identifying with the group, the researcher becomes biased.
When this happens, they have stopped being an objective observer and have simply become a member of the group.

Question 17

What is Maurice’s Punch example of “going native”?

Answer 17

Maurice found that in striving to be accepted by tightly knit patrol group he was studying, he over identified with them, even acting as policemen himself - chasing and holding suspects searching houses, cars and people, shouting at people who abused his police colleagues.

Question 18

What is a problem of going native?

Answer 18

1. The researcher may preserve their detachment so as to avoid bias, but by remaining detached they risk not understanding the events they observe
2. The less time the researcher spends with the group, the less strange its ways come to appear (the observer becomes less observant

Question 19

What is getting out the group like?

Answer 19

In practical terms, getting out of the group at the end of the study generally presents fewer problems than getting in and staying in.

If worst comes to worse, the researcher can simply call a halt or leave.

Question 20

What was Patrick’s experience of getting out of the group?

Answer 20

He studied a Glasgow gang, when sickened by the violence, he abandoned the study abruptly.

Others can leave more gracefully, particularly if the observation has been overt.

Question 21

What are other problems of getting out the group?

Answer 21

The researcher may find that loyalty prevents them from fully disclosing everything they have learnt, for fear that this might harm members of the group.

For example in the case of criminal groups, exposure of their activities might lead to prosecution or reprisals against the author

Question 22

What are advantages of overt observations?

Answer 22

1. It avoids ethical problem of obtaining information by deceit
2. It allows the observer to ask the kind of naive questions that only an outsider could ask. For example “why do you rob and steal?”
3. The observer can take notes properly
4. Allows the researcher to use interview methods to check insights derived from observations

Question 23

What are disadvantages of overt observations?

Answer 23

1. A group may refuse the researcher permission to observe them or may prevent them from seeing everything.
2. It also risks creating a Hawthorne Effect, where those who know they are being observed begin to behave differently as a result. This undermines the validity of the data.