Evaluation of Observations

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  • Created by: evamaex
  • Created on: 23-04-24 14:28

Evalutation of Observations

Advantages

  • Practical (overt):
  • Practical (covert): access easier if you pretend to be one of them (Humphreys Tearoom Trade)
  • Ethical (overt): not really deceiving people as you have consent (compare to covert), Eileen Barker didn't deceit the Moonies,
  • Ethical (covert):
  • Validity (overt): can make notes as you're known as the researcher (may still be difficult), can build trust and behave more naturally, witnessing first hand.
  • Validity (covert): no Hawthorne effect, witnessing first hand behaviour
  • Theoretical (overt): interpretivists prefer as it is qualitiative, provides insight, Weber - verstehen.
  • Theoretical (covert): interpretivists prefer as it is qualitiative, provides insight, Weber - verstehen.

Disadvantages

  • Practical (overt): may be hard to gain trust, hard to access group, time consuming, costly
  • Practical (covert): hard to access groups, time consuming, costly, harder to blend in if you dont know the norms of group - James Patrick Glasgow Gang had to buy suit and copy style, doing top button made him look different.
  • Ethical (overt): can put researcher in danger (Venkatesh) may be dangerous groups,
  • Ethical (covert): lack of consent, Humphreys Tearoom, violation of privacy as they trusted a fake identity, may be dangerous for researcher.
  • Reliability (overt): researcher could risk going 'native' - Barker study of Moonies,
  • Reliability (covert): low reliability.
  • Validity (overt): Hawthorne effect (Paul Willis)
  • Validity (covert): researcher could risk going 'native' - Barker study of Moonies,
  • Representativeness (overt): low as it only represents small sections of society
  • Representativeness (covert) :low as it only represents small sections of society
  • Theoretical (overt): positivists against it as no social facts, lack quanitiative data, no patterns or numbers.
  • Theoretical (covert):positivists against it as no social facts, lack quantitative data, no patterns or numbers.

Evaluation

Overt: openly observing, identity known.Covert: hidden, unknown identity, 'undercover'.

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