Research methods based on primary data - observations Flashcards
Participant
The researcher gets involved
Non-participant
The researcher quietly watches
Covert
Participant doesn’t know researcher
Overt
Participant knows researcher
Overt advantages and disadvantages
✓ No ethical issues
X People change their behaviour knowing their being watched
Covert advantages and disadvantages
✓ People act naturally
X Unethical, participants are deceiving
Verstehen
To understand/empathy
- Weber’s term for studying human beheaviour
- German word for “to understand”
- “Someone who has been there”
Ethnography
Studying way of life of people
If people know they are being watched they change their behaviour, therefore reducing….
Validity
Mayo - The Hawthorne effect and “Observer effects”
- Carried out in the Hawthorne factory
- Conducted various experiments
E.g. Levels of lighting, heating and rest breaks
Mayo concluded
- No matter the environmental conditions, worker productivity increased
- As they were being observed
Laud Humphrey’s and the tearoom sex study - participant observation
- Detailed understanding of men who have impersonal sex with one another in public restrooms
- Stationed as “watchqueen”
- Those willing to talk were among better educated
- Avoid bias: followed other men and
- 1 year later disguised (unethical) appeared at their homes and interviewed about marital status, race and job (putting himself in danger)
Laud Humphrey’s and the tearoom sex study - findings
- 54% were married living with wives
- Sex had to be quick, inexpensive and impersonal
- 24% bisexual
- 24% covert homosexuals
- 14% members of gay community
Laud Humphrey’s and the tearoom sex study - unethical
An argument arose when members of the department argued Humphreys has unethically invaded the privacy and threatened the social standing on the subjects
Strengths of Humphrey’s study
✓ Covert - natural behaviour
✓ High in validity- true picture
✓ Gain verstehen
Problems with Humphrey’s study
x Deception
x Unethical
x Micro: can’t generalise
Sudhir Venkatesh - overt participant observation
- Study the lives of poor black people
- Went to one of the worst, drug infested projects
- He asked “how does it feel to be black and poor”
- Poorly designed
- Gun held to his head
- One drug gang leader stopped him from being killed
- J.T believed Sudhir would write a book about him being a businessman
- Sold cocaine
- Only show what they wanted
- 8 years
Overt participant advantages
✓ Ethical: no deception
✓ Take notes: doesn’t rely on memory
✓ Ethnographic: takes place in a natural environment
Overt participant disadvantages
x Hawthorne effect: people can change behaviour
x Lowers validity
x Only show what the participant wants them to see
x Micro: can’t generalise
How would you get in touch with a gang?
Snowball = one person puts you in touch with other people Dangers = killed, illegal activity, harm to self
Problems with a diary
x Relies on memory
x Subjective
Problems with a camera
x Obvious
x Hawthorne effect: change
Problems with a dictaphone
x Time consuming to transcribe
Problems with memory
x Subjective (differs)
Ethical issues with observations
x Deception
x Danger
x Lack of concern
Getting in
- Made easier when the researcher has a contact with in the group
- E.g. Parker (view from the boys)
- Easy entry and rapid, possibly because he was ‘young, hair, boozy’ etc
Staying in
- The observer has to come to terms with a new set of norms, relationships and activities, requires skill and understanding
- E.g. Parker would keep ‘dixy’ (watch) and receive ‘knock off’ but would not become involved in the act of of stealing
- Observer fatigue = research is physically tiring and mentally exhausting, keeping a pretence about who you are
View from the boys: What does ‘going native’ mean?
Join the group being studied / lose objectivity
View from the boys: Why did Parker fit in with the boys?
He was ‘young, hairy, boozy’ = he looked like them
View from the boys: Why was it hard to record data?
Didn’t want to reveal their cover
