Participant Observation Sheena Williams Justin Antero Matthew Baker Rebecca Conway

What is Participant Observation? Participant observation is when a sociologist truly becomes a part of the group they are studying in order to collect data and learn about a social aspect or problem. During participant observation, the researcher works to be a *subjective participant and *objective observer. The goal of participant observation is to gain a deep understanding with a certain group of individuals, like a religious, occupational, or particular community group. To manage participant observation, the researcher often lives within the group, becomes a part of it, and lives as a group member for an elongated period of time, allowing them access to the private details and goings on of the group and their society. *A subjective observation is when an observer records his or her ideas, thoughts, emotions, and opinions of a situation *An objective observation is when an observer records the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and physical feelings of a situation

Incorporating Experiment method with Participant Observation method A sociologist can also incorporate two research methods to their research. For example: a sociologist would want to find out what would happen if you do certain things to a certain group of people and in order to get the results they would need to pose as someone who can manipulate a certain setting by infiltrating the setting to prove the hypothesis they set out.

Example of Participant Observation In this example, a sociology students is using participant observation by placing themselves in the college campus setting, observing their fellow students.

Advantages of Participant Observation The researcher gets a primary source of data. It’s first- hand information which hasn’t been interrupted by anyone else. The participants are likely to develop a relationship with the researcher so are more likely to be truthful and honest Allows researcher to gain empathy through personal experience. By acting as a member, the researcher can get insight into their meanings, viewpoints, values, and problems - gives authentic data More flexible and allows for an open mind. The researcher can follow up different directions/ideas if something interesting occurs. Advantages of Participant Observation

Disadvantages of Participant Observation Gaining entry to the group and being accepted can be difficult The presence of the researcher may affect the behavior of the group. This is also known as the *Hawthorne effect and is a big problem with overt observations The observations may lack structure, this means the quality of the observations by sociologist relies upon their skill as an observer. This lack of structure also makes the method unreliable as it is difficult to replicate There are also ethical issues, especially with *covert observations as you will normally have to lie to the participants to ensure you remain undercover *The Hawthorne Effect refers to the fact that people will modify their behavior simply because they are being observed. *the researcher's status is not made known to the group