Participant observation

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Participant observation:

Types of observation:

  • Non participant - researcher just observes the group without taking part. 
  • Participant - researcher takes part in an event or the everyday life of a group. 
  • Overt observation - researcher makes their true identity and purpose known to those being studied. 
  • Covert observation - study is carried out 'under cover'. researchers true identy and purose is concealed from the group being studied. 

Most observation is unstructured participant observation. Positivists use structured observation which is usually non-participant. They can categorise whats happening. Observations can be used in conjuction with other methods.

Conducting a participant observation study:

1) Getting in - Getting into some groups is easier than others such as a football crowd compared to a criminal gang

2) Making contact - Making initial contact may depend on the personal skills, having right connections or pure chance. 

3) Acceptance- To gain entry the researcher has to win the trust and acceptance from the group, age, gender,class or ethnicity may prove to be an obstacle.

4) Observers role -  The role the researcher adopts should ideally be one that doesnt disrupts normal patterns and offer a good vanatage point to which make observations from. However can not always be possible to take a role that fits both and some may take sides in conflict. 

5) Staying in - One danger of staying in the group is becomine over-involved or 'going native'. This is when the researcher has over identified with the group that they become biased and this is when they stop being an objective researcher and become a member of the group. Another risk is that the observer remains so detached that they dont understand the events going on. The more time the researcher spends with the group the less they notice things that would of struck them as unusal. 

6) Getting out - Re-entering

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