covert and overt observation
- Created by: 1ysh
- Created on: 16-10-21 12:36
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- overt: the researcher makes their true identity and purpose known to those being studied/ open about what they're doing
- observations
- covert: the study is carried out undercover/ concealed from the group being studied, false identity & role
- disadvantages of covert: risk of cover being blown, must rely on memory, cannot ask questions, ethical issues: take part immoral illegal activities, invasion of privacy
- advantages of covert: reduces the risk of altering people's behaviour, sometimes the only way to obtain valid information
- getting in
- staying in
- can become over involved or 'going native', researcher can become biased if over identifying group
- researcher needs to stay in the group to complete the study (problem- has to be involved yet detached so it remains objective and unbiased)
- can become over involved or 'going native', researcher can become biased if over identifying group
- making contact (depends on personal skills, right connections, or pure chance) acceptance (has to win trust and acceptance)
- staying in
- getting out
- staying in
- can become over involved or 'going native', researcher can become biased if over identifying group
- researcher needs to stay in the group to complete the study (problem- has to be involved yet detached so it remains objective and unbiased)
- can become over involved or 'going native', researcher can become biased if over identifying group
- researcher can halt and leave, others can leave more gracefully if overt, can sometimes be difficult due to loyalty or fear
- staying in
- participant: the researcher actually takes part in the event or group while observing it
- ethnography: the study of the way of life of a group of people- their culture & structure of society
- interpretivists favor it because it gives it a true picture. first- hand insight into social actor's meanings
- advantages of PO: validity, insight- best way to understand what something is like to experience it, avoids the imposition problem, VERSTEHEN, flexible, not just a snapshot
- disadvantages of PO: time consuming, stressful and demanding, ethical problems- deceiving people, representative, unreliable- unlikely to replicate, bias, lack of objectivity, invalid- positivists feel it reflects what researcher chooses to tell rather than truth
- non- participant: the researcher observes the group or event without taking part in it
- advantages of NOP: unaware, observer less likely to influence the group, reliable- repeated as less detached, structured- hypothesis gained
- disadvantages of NOP: fewer opportunities of discovering meanings, more likely to impose their own interpretations and meanings on behavior and observations
- covert: the study is carried out undercover/ concealed from the group being studied, false identity & role
- disadvantages of covert: group may refuse permission to observe them, may prevent researcher from seeing everything, risks of creating Hawthorne effect, undermines validity of data
- advantages of overt: avoids ethical problems of obtaining info by deceit, allows the observer to ask questions, can takes notes openly
- observations
- Laud Humphreys, Tearoom Trade: impersonal sex in public places (1970)
- covert participant observation
- James Patrick, A Glasgow Gang Observed (1973)
- wanted to give boys a chance to sort lives out, befriended a student who introduced him and allowed him to observe a Glasgow gang, went on for 4 months, by memory he produced rich data on the speech and ways of gangs
- James Patrick, A Glasgow Gang Observed (1973)
- wanted to study the gay subculture and observed the sexual activity of gay men in public toilets (sex was illegal between the same gender), Laud served as a 'watchqueen' (a lookout). He then recorded mens' number plates and interviewed them at their house a year later (disguised as health service)
- observed without consent: unethical, exploited trust, wasn't an important study, invaded privacy, put people in harm, great risk, stalking
- covert participant observation
- Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day (2009)
- went to interview a chicago drug gang on how it felt to be young and poor, then spent 18 months, spread over seven months spending time with the gang gang leader JT controlled drugs and buildings and allowed Venkatesh to observe, Venkatesh participated in illegal activities. gained insight into a poverty-stricken community. his aim was to study poverty within black people
- was put in alot of danger, biased outcome as he became good friends with the gang leader, attachment= lack of truth, lacks validity as only saw certain things
- overt participant observation
- went to interview a chicago drug gang on how it felt to be young and poor, then spent 18 months, spread over seven months spending time with the gang gang leader JT controlled drugs and buildings and allowed Venkatesh to observe, Venkatesh participated in illegal activities. gained insight into a poverty-stricken community. his aim was to study poverty within black people
- positivists who see sociology as scientific, reject PO as an unsystematic method that cannot be replicated by other researchers
- interpretivists favor it because it gives it a true picture. first- hand insight into social actor's meanings
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