Topic 8 - Participant Observation and MIC

Question 1

Observations

Answer 1

• Participant is used more often than non participant
• Liked by interpretivists
• Positivists sometimes use non participant observation: uses a structured observation schedule -a predetermined list of the types of behaviour the sociologist is interested in. Produces quantitative data
• Most sociologists use unstructured participant observation - offers insight into a groups way of life and so is mainly used by interpretivists

Question 2

Issues with getting in

Answer 2

• Some groups are easier to get into than others
• Researcher has to overcome suspicion and gain trust
• Reserachers age, gender or ethnicity may prove an obstacle if different from the group
• Should not disrput groups normal behaviour - not always possible to take a role that is non disruptive and a good vantage point

Question 3

Issues with staying in

Answer 3

• Reseracher must be involved in the group but must also be detatched to remain objective and unbiased
• Too detatched = risk of not understanding
• Too involved = risk going native
• Need to strike a balance
• The longer a researcher spends with the group the less strange its ways will appear; observer becomes less observant
• William F Whyte - ‘I started as a non participating observer and foud myself becoming a non observing participant’

Question 4

Issues with getting out

Answer 4

• Usually less of a problem
• Leaving the group you have become close to can be difficult as well as re-entering the ‘normal world’
• Loyalty to the group may prevent researchers from fully disclosing everything they have learnt

Question 5

Practical issues

Answer 5

• Gives us insight to other peoples lives
• PO allows us sociologists to gain verstehen through first hand experience
• PO produces large amounts of rich, detailed, qualitative data
• May be only suitable method for accessing and studying certain groups
• PO is flexible in comparison to survey methods
• Whyte: ‘I learned answers to questions that I would not have the nerve to ask if i had been using interviews’
• Polsky: ‘Initially keep your eyes and ears open but keep your mouth shut’

Question 6

Overt

Answer 6

• Researcher can behave normally
• Dont need special knowledge or personal characteristics to join
• Group may refuse to let outsider in/prevent them witnessing certain activities
• Can ask naiive questions
• Can take notes openly
• Can use interviews or other methods to check insights
• Can opt out of any dangerous/illegal activities
• Risks creating Hawthorne Effect

Question 7

Covert

Answer 7

• Must keep up an act
• May need detailed knowledge of groups way of life
• Might be only way of getting info
• Can’t ask naiive questions - could blow cover
• Has to rely on memory
• Cant combine observation with any other methods
• Might have to engage in dangerous/illegal activities to maintain cover
• Less risk of altering groups behaviour

Question 8

Ethical issues

Answer 8

• Unethical to deceive people
• Unethical to lie about why they are leaving the group
• May have to participate in immoral/illegal activities
• Overt PO avoids these problems
• PO leads to personal attatchment to the group so researcher risks going native
• NPO avoids these problems but NPO involved ‘spying’ on people without their knowledge and consent

Question 9

Theoretical Issues: Interpretivism

Answer 9

• Produces qualitative data - liked by interpretivists
• Produces detailed and authentic pics of actors’ meanings: valid, flexible and grounded theory
• Sociologists have high level of involvement in PO - enables deep, subjective understanding of their meanings thus producing valid, insightful and qualitative data
• Flexibility produces valid data
• Glaser and Strauss - being able to enter reseacrh without fixed hypothesis researcher can develop ideas during research to produce grounded theory

Question 10

Theoretical issues and positivism

Answer 10

• Reject the use of PO due to its unscientific method
• Lack of representativeness
• \lack of reliability
• Bias and lack of objectivity
• Lack of validity

Question 11

Representativeness

Answer 11

• Groups are usually very small
• Sample is often collected haphazardly therefore group studied turns out to be unrepresentative = doesnt allow generalisations to be made
• Downes and Rock - although PO may provide valid insights, it’s doubtful for how the ‘internally valid’ insights are ‘externall valid’

Question 12

Reliability

Answer 12

• Not a standardised, scientific measuring instrument
• Success depends on personal skills/characteristics
• Therefore impossible for other researchers to check original study by replicating it
• Comparisons are difficuly due to qualitative nature of data produced

Question 13

Bias and lack of objectivity

Answer 13

• Researchers close involvement = lack of objectivity
• Involvement risks going native
• PO appeals to sociologists who sympathise with the underdog - may be biased in favour of subjects viewpoint

Question 14

Lack of validity

Answer 14

• Positivists reject that PO produces valid data
• Finsings are biased subjective impressions of observer
• Observer selects facts they think are worth recording - these are likely to fit in with their own values and prejudices

Question 15

The Hawthorne Effect

Answer 15

• Undermines the validity of PO - observers presence may make subjects act diffrently
• Bigger issue for overt observation
• Interpretivists - over time group generally gets used to observers presence and behave normally
• Reseacher can try to adopt a less obtrusive role to minimise the threat to validity

Question 16

Structure vs Action perspectives

Answer 16

• PO normall associated with ‘action’ perspectives like interactionism
• Action perspectives see society as being constructed

Question 17

Methods in Context

Answer 17

Stuctured observations
- Flanders (1970)
- Sara Dalamont

Untructured observations
- Wright (1992)
- Ball (1993)
- Hammersky
- Lacey
- J.W.B Douglas
- Leon Feinstein (2003)

Question 18

Structured observations

Answer 18

• Positivists favour structured observations as they enable them to identify and make quantitative measurements of behaviour
• Usually NPO

Question 19

Practical issues of structured observations

Answer 19

Flanders system of interaction analysis categorised (FIAC) - was used to measure pupil-pupil and pupil-teacher interaction quantitatively.
- Observer uses standard chart to recrod interacton at 3 second interviews, placing eac observation in on of 10 pre-defined behaviour categories
- Flanders found in typical American classrooms, 68% of the time is taken up by teachers talking, 20% pupils and 12% silence
- Quicker, cheaper and require less training than unstructured methods

Question 20

Reliability

Answer 20

• Techniques such as FIAC are likely to be easily replicated - only uses 10 categories of classroom interaction, easy to apply in standardised way
• Generates quantitative data - easily comparable

Question 21

Validity

Answer 21

• Interpretivists criticise it for lack of validity
• Sara Dalamont - simply counting classroom behaviour and classifying it into limited number of pre defined categories ignores meanings that pupils and teachers attatch to it

Question 22

Unstructured observation

Answer 22

• Interpretivists favour it because it’s qualitative and flexible
• Access to meanings teachers and pupils give to situations
• Doesnt make assumptions in advance about what the ey research issues will be
• Used more often

Question 23

Practical issues of unstructured

Answer 23

• Schools are complex place and more time consuming to observe, however, may be easier to gain permission to observe lessons than to do interviews with teachers and pupils
• Wright: carried out her research - few black teachers, found that African Carribean ethnicity produced antagonistic reactions
• Hammersky: notes down staffroom conversations had to be done covertly. He noted that he may have made mistakes as he relied on on his own interpretation of what was said

Question 24

Ethical issues

Answer 24

• Pupils greater vulnerability and limited ability to give informed consent means it has to be done covertly
• Can be argued researcher is obliged to report wrongdoing, however doing so may break trust between pupil and researcher
• Dalamont found given the harm that can be done to pupils, teachers and schools additional care should be taken to protect their identity

Question 25

Validity

Answer 25

• Interpretivists - main strength of PO is validity, however, difference between young people and adults is a barrier to uncovering real attitudes and behaviour - may result in false image = undermines validity
• Teachers may be skilled at disguising feelings and altering behaviour; results in sociologists data lacking validity
• Language from pupil may differnt from the researcher - difficult for researchers to be certain that they understand pupils meanings

Question 26

The Hawthorne effect

Answer 26

• Few cover roles researcher can adopt = difficult to carry out observation; means it has to be covert = difficult to avoid the hawthorne effect
• Difficult to reduce effect of researchers presence
• Ball - asked what did the children make of ‘the tall man hiding in the Wendy house?’ - childrens awareness of King’s presence may have changed their normal behaviour = undermines validity

Question 27

Representativeness

Answer 27

• Scale of educational system is vast, by contrast, most observational studies focus on a small number in single schools
• Small scale study results form the fact that it takes time to become familiar with setting, gain trust and carry out observation
• Small scale means obtaining schools interaction is unlikely to produce representative data
• Hammersky - data collected in staff room were more open to sample bias because many treated him with suspicion = less representative

Question 28

Reliability

Answer 28

• PO studies lack reliability because data recording is unsystematic and hard to replicate
• Personal characteristics of observers are different and so affects outcomes
• Wright - found that as a black female she was met with hostility by some white teachers, but readily accepted by black pupils

Question 29

Longitudinal studies

Lacey, J.W.B Douglas, Leon Feinstein

Answer 29

• Lacey - 4 year old PO study of Hightown Grammar school
• J.W.B Douglas - study following 5632 children all born in the first week of March in 1946 through their schooling
• Feinstein - used data from NCD’s and the British Cohort study which follows a group born in 1970 to study educational differences in educational achievement

Question 30

Advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal studies

Answer 30

• Trace developments over time
• Make comparisons over time
• Sample attition - people dropping out of study; NCD’s lost 1/3 of its original sample of 17,400
• Large amounts of data can be difficult to analyse
• Expensive