Participant Observation

Participant Observation

1. The researcher is an observer who finds a role within the group, allowing them to study the group's behaviour.

   • it takes place in a real-world environment, where the observer "puts themselves in the other person's shoes" to observe the research group's own views and experiences. ("Verstehen")
     • This is called an ETHNOGRAPHIC method.

2. A way of gathering PRIMARY DATA.

3. Can be covert (undercover) or overt (the participants know).

4. PRACTICAL

   • The researcher must find a way to become accepted by the group, and sometimes there are barriers concerning age, gender, ethnicity, and personality.
     • Griffin: "made himself black" to investigate attitudes of black men in America's Deep South.
       • "With my decision to become a Negro I realised that I, a specialist in race issues, really knew nothing of the Negro's problems."
   • Participant observation can be very time consuming, sometimes taking years to complete.
   • For both overt and covert, access can be difficult to find, especially in certain groups who may not wish to be studied.

5. ETHICAL

   • Covert observation raises serious ethical issues.
     • It is immoral to deceive people, but when studying dangerous groups it is sometimes the only way.
   • If studying a dangerous group, the researcher may be put in danger.

6. THEORETICAL

   • Participant observation is favoured by INTERPRETIVISTS.
     • Open-ended, qualitative data means the subject can be actively explored, with new hypotheses arising as and when.
     • The data collected can be very, very valid.
     • But NOT by POSITIVISTS.
       • Large, carefully chosen samples usually can't be used, and often the sample is chosen "haphazardly" or just as and when the opportunity arises.
         • James Patrick (not his real name) who studied gangs in Glasgow when the opportunity arose (a student offered for him to join his gang) admitted in his publication that his findings were in no way representative.
       • Structural sociologists like Marxists and functionalists see participant observation inadequate because it focuses on 'micro' interactions instead of the 'macro' of larger society.
   • Interpretivists argue that this is valid, but some argue that participant observation doesn't necessarily "tell it like it is" but instead just how the participant sees it.
   • To be reliable, something must be standardised. Because participant observation relies so heavily on individuals, both the researcher and those being researched, that representativeness suffers.

7. EXAMPLES

   • King: tried to blend into the background of an infants school. Spent short periods of time in class, didn't make eye contact with the children, and concealed himself in the Wendy House.
   • Laud Humphreys: Tearoom trade