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Observations (Key information (Non Participant observation - The…
Observations
Key information
Non Participant observation - The researcher observe the group/event without taking part in it. For example… they must use a two way mirror to observe children playing.
Participant observation - the researcher actually takes part in the event or the everyday life of the group while observing them.
Overt observation - the researcher makes their true identity and purpose known to those being studied. The sociologist is open about what they are doing.
Covert observation - The study is carried out undercover. The researchers true identity and purpose are kept concealed from the group being studied. The researcher usually takes on a false identity and poses as one of the group.
Practical -
Negative -
Access - usually in observation you have to use a snowball sample and they are usually hard to obtain.
Participant observation - if your covert it’s hard to keep your identity hidden. If you were acting as a teacher you would need a DBS and PGCE and you would have to get past the gatekeepers.
Researchers skill - researchers gender, social class or ethnicity may become a hurdle. Certain groups won’t open up to certain people.
Speech codes. - Could create barrier
Time and money - very time consuming activity. Get a sample and know who you are researching. Acceptance + making contact. Eggleston- took him 3 months to get into his research. Then you have to stay in - keeping an hidden identity. Sometimes they become on of them - ‘going native’
Then you have to ‘get out’ - could be dangerous - gang - loyalty, may not want to go.
Positive -
Overt - easy to take notes.
Topic - when using observation you can research difficult topics. It would give you the ability to research topics like labeling, streaming or institutional racism if you are covert.
Researchers skill - Wright found that being an ethnic minority helped her to build a rapport with students when researching ethnic minorities.
Link to education - guilty knowledge - if you found that a teacher was labelling or institutional racism was taking place but you were friends with the teacher and built a rapport with them would you publish the researcher
Ethical -
Negative
Covert - lack informed consent/ deception
Risking harm of sociologist and participants - physical and psychological. Harm teachers career and students self esteem
Guilty knowledge - researching labeling and institutional racism.
Positive
Overt - more ethical, getting consent and not lying.
Theoretical
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Negative
Overt - have got hawthorne effect - lower in validity.
Observations - low in representativeness because the sample will be smaller.
Paul willis only had 12 lads in his study.
Unreliable - unstructured / only structured are reliable.
Guilty knowledge - low validity - sociologist might lie or hold back information/exaggerate information.
Covert - may forget information, might miss out bits - low validity
Verstehen
Weber’s term for studying human behaviour. German word for ‘to understand’, ‘to grasp by insight’ To walk in ones shoes.
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Positivist - disagree. It’s subjective - too much opinion. The researcher can biased the research
Interpretivist - love this method. It’s flexible and provides insight into the social actors social world.
Why observation?
Rich in validity, shows us social reality.