What are the two main issues psychologists may face when conducting a participant observation?
- getting in, staying in, getting out
- whether to use overt or covert observation
What does making initial contact with a group depend on?
- Personal skills, having the right connections e.g. Patrick was able to join a Glasgow gang because he looked quite young and knew one of the members
What is a danger of staying in participant observations?
- staying in the group may result in becoming overinvolved and the research can become biased
What are the advantages of overt observations?
- avoids the ethical problem of obtaining information by deceit, children are vulnerable & limited in ability so informed consent needed
- can ask important questions openly
- can take notes openly
What are the disadvantages of overt observations?
- a school may refuse the research permission to observe them or may prevent them from seeing everything
- risk creating the Hawthorne effect where those observed behaviour differently (teachers > impression management) which undermines validity
What are the disadvantages of covert observations?
Practical
- cover can be blown
- requires research to keep up an act
- cannot take notes openly which relies on memory > may not remember or misinterpret
Ethical
- immoral to deceive people
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What are structured observations?
- use pre-categorised list to observe behaviour
- positivists prefer this method because they enable them to identify and make quantitate measurements of behaviour patterns
What are the advantages of structured observations?
- practical> observations can be easily converted into quantitative data e.g. using the Flanders system of interaction analysis categories, easily place each observation in categories
- Theoretical > easily replicated as structured observations are standardised
What are the disadvantages of structured observations?
- lacks validity, as just counting ignored meanings that pupils attach to behaviour
What is an unstructured observation?
- no pre determined list
- interpretivists favour this method as it allows them to gain access to the meanings that teachers & pupils give to situations
What are the advantages of an unstructured observation?
- practical >may be easier to gain permission to observe lessons that interview peoples> does not interfere with class room activities
- ethical > covert not appropriate
- theoretical > high in validity as it gives an authentic understanding of the the views of social actors (labelling, interactions)
What are the disadvantages of an unstructured observation?
- practical > personal characteristics may affect e.g. Wright was a black observer which brought hostility from white teachers at the time
- observations of interactions are limited by by restrictions of school timetable, holidays, healthy & safety
- Theoretical > power difference between young pupils & adults is a barrier to uncovering real attitudes & present false image
- can’t adopt cover roles > Hawthorne effect
- limited scale of study e.g. Willis (12 boys) unlikely to produce representative data
- not reliable as data is not carried out in a systematic way
