Participant observation Flashcards
Practical ++++
✓ Insiders Perspective: It’s most often used with difficult areas of research, & often does reveal interesting insights into these groups which would not be gained from an outsiders’ perspective.
✓ Possible to study deviant groups: Covert observation may give access to certain areas of a groups’ behaviour that may be only be possible in secret. A deviant group may refuse access to open research. ✓ Can generate new ideas: In other research methods, such as questionnaires (social surveys), the questions have already been fixed by the researcher which limits their flexibility. In PO, the researcher enters the study with an open mind & no pre-fixed hypothesis which allows new insights & ideas they might not have initially have considered to be investigated.
✓ It may be the only investigation type possible: Covert PO may be the only available research method to gain a valid picture of what is going on, especially for deviant social groups such as criminal gangs or religious cults. Such groups may be hostile to, & suspicious of, people from outside so trying to use other sociological methods, such as interviews, may not be possible.
Practical —-
× Time consuming: To research the whole lifestyle of a group will require great commitment & may take place over months or years. E.g. Barker’s study of the Moonies took 7 yrs.
× Expensive: The researcher will need to have financial support whilst they are living with the group. They may also need to buy new clothing, etc. in order to ‘fit in’.
× Access: Difficulties in joining groups – a person’s age, class, gender, ethnicity, accent, etc. can prevent them from joining a group & some groups may be so secretive it becomes almost impossible to even try & join.
× Staying in: It is also very difficult to sustain a covert role over a long period of time as you may need to ‘act’ all the time & not let down your guard in case an individual or the group becomes suspicious of you. This may require performing an act which may be morally wrong, criminal or even dangerous to secure your hidden identity.
× Getting out: Leaving the group may also bring its own set of problems. How will the group under observation react if they have found out they have been deceived & lied to if covert PO was used? Will the life of the researcher be in danger afterwards?
× Recording behaviour is difficult: This is especially the case with covert observations as its very difficult to record data without raising suspicions. Taking notes is a problem & sociologists often have to rely on memory to record events in this way which can easily get distorted & affect validity. Covert cameras & recording equipment pose their own problems & can also potentially put the researcher in danger if they were discovered.
ethics
✓ Overt observation is an ethically sound approach because the observer gains the informed consent of those involved & is not deceiving the participants.
× Covert observations deceive the group being studied. People in the group have not given their informed consent & so the method is not moral.
× Researcher may become involved in criminal/deviant acts - if you are participating with certain groups the researcher may engage in illegal or immoral activities. E.g. PO of football hooligans. This can lead to what is known as ‘guilty knowledge’.
× Researcher may suffer physical or mental harm - staying in a situation may be stressful, demanding & even dangerous especially if done covertly as you do not have permission from the group under study & you may become involved in illegal activities.
reliability
× Lacks reliability: Positivists consider PO studies to be fundamentally flawed because this form of study cannot be accurately repeated. I.e. they would not necessarily produce the same results if carried out by different researchers. This is because they are not carried out according to controlled & standardised procedures, unlike a method such as experiments.
× Findings cannot be tested: There are no fixed rules of research & no common agreed systems of measurement which means data cannot be tested in a meaningful way.
Validity +++
✓ High validity: This data gathered is seen as more valid as it is a true reflection of the lives of people being studied. PO sees what they do rather than what they say they do. It takes place in a natural, everyday setting which means that those being investigated will often behave as they would normally do. This is all especially true if covert PO is used.
✓ Gain a better understanding of a social group: Researchers can see things from the point of view of the observed & therefore have a deeper understanding of those observed (verstehen) e.g. what motivates the group; what meaning do they attach to their own behaviour, clothes, language etc.
✓ Strong rapport: Participant observation can create a strong link between the researcher & the social group, which means the group may confide with the researcher on issues that before may have remained hidden. E.g. as a group member, the researcher can ask questions to clarify meanings.
Validity —
× Observer/Hawthorne Effect: The presence of an observer will affect a group’s behaviour. Even in covert participant observation, where the research purpose is hidden, the presence of a new member of the group can still affect its activities & thus the advantage of naturalistic research is partly lost.
× Difficulty in recording data: If a researcher has to rely on their memory & trust their objectivity, validity can be effected as memories can be distorted & events forgotten due to being involved with the group.
× Going native/observer bias: Main problem with PO is that the researcher works so closely with the group under study, they might get too involved & start to see the world purely from the groups’ perspective. This might mean they miss valuable insights into the group as they no longer see things clearly.
example
- James Patrick, ‘A Glasgow Gang Observed’: Covert PO of a Glasgow street gang (4 months)
- Eileen Barker ‘Making of a Moonie’ (6yrs) Overt PO
representativeness
× Unrepresentative/cannot generalise: Few participant observation studies make any attempt at being representative of a wider research population. They are very much ‘one-off’ studies & there is no way of knowing how representative or not they are. Therefore no generalisations can be made on the basis of the data created.
Theory
✓ Interpretivists argue that valid data is most likely to be created when a group is studied in its normal social setting.
✓ Interpretivists are trying to find detailed meanings behind people’s behaviour. It is a qualitative method that reveals much about the experiences of social groups.
✓ It is also an open research process. Participant observation is a fluid, flexible approach in which the research process is directed less by the researcher & more by the researched. The researcher ‘goes with the flow’ of research allowing it to unfold & in this process, observers often find any early preconceptions being contradicted by actual experience.
× Positivists would say because the researcher is immersed in a social situation they are subjective & biased in their impressions made by the observer. Therefore PO lacks objectivity.
