Essay Malinowski's Participant-Observation in Modern Anthropology

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Participant Observation as a Research Method This essay will examine how participant observation is used as a research method. In the main body of this essay, this idea will be addressed by pointing out advantages and disadvantages of participant observation. I will give examples to support my argument. Participant observation is the main research method favoured by interpetitivists. It involves the researcher participating…

In the article, “Researching Dealers and Smugglers,” Patricia Adler discusses her and her husband’s experience using participant observation to collect data from drug dealers and the problems this qualitative method brought. A qualitative method focuses on collecting rich, non-statistical data. This method involves face-to-face interviews and actual participation with the group being researched. The Adlers use this method because it is almost impossible to gather accurate information on people who…

Participant observation is a method of collecting information and data about a culture and is carried out by the researcher immersing themselves in the culture they observing. The researcher becomes known in the community, getting to know and understand the culture in a more intimate and detailed way than would be possible from any other approach. This is done by observing and participating in the community’s daily activities. The method is so effective because the researcher is able to directly…

Reflexivity and Modern Works of Anthropology The role of reflexivity in Anthropology has changed a great deal over time. The effects of doing ethnography on the ethnographer was not considered an important mode of inquiry in the past. While inevitably, going to far distant lands and living with a culture so different from your own will at least cause the ethnographer to reflect on personal issues but most likely will cause profound changes in the way he or she will view the world. But in the…

Participant Observation as the Most Effective Method of Understanding Society All case studies require either overt or covert observation to collect the information necessary to complete the study. Both covert and overt have their advantages and disadvantages; they both add different but similar ideas and theories to a study. These two methods have been used in a variety of case studies but the ones that I am going to focus on are James Patrick’s study of Glasgow gang’s…

Introduction All methods involve observation, but participant observation is characterized by the extent to which its advocates insist on observation and interpretation of a situation, informed by an understanding of the situation from the point of view of the participants rather than the observer. An attempt is made to avoid imposing categories from outside. Participant observation is the method of anthropology, although it is used in a wide range of sociological studies when the researcher has 'become…

The Usefulness of Participant Observation as a Sociological Method Unlike other research methods participant observation allows the sociologist to look at people in their natural environment. It is often referred to as a naturalistic approach. The research does not artificially interfere with people’s lives and they are free to act as normal. This allows the researcher to gain an insight which surveys cannot produce. This is illustrated by a well-known quote: “As I sat…

Choice of setting and observations collected The widest interest for this participant observation was how subjects interacted in a situation where there was a limited resource without formal mediation for access. Personal experience at airports, for example, revealed that once boarding is announced, often many passengers voluntarily assemble, pick up and put down their luggage as they move step by step forward in a slow, extended line even though they all have pre-assigned seat numbers, while many…

sociologist too mention but a few, professions employ the daily observations we engage in as humans in a methodology called participant observation. Dewalt and Dewalt (2002:1) define participant observation as “a method in which a researcher takes part in the daily activities, events, rituals and interactions, of a group of people as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their life routine and culture.” Participant observation can be carried out in roles that reveal or hide the identity…

The class attended for my Participant Observation Assignment was a yoga class at the Recreation Center at State University. Such a class is for one session and is forty-five minutes in length. During this class, we covered beginning yoga moves at a slow pace so everyone felt comfortable. The nature of the class consisted of simple yoga moves, serine atmosphere, and relaxing music. Learning theories that were address, applied, and by the instructor wanted us to use were Skinner’s Operant Conditioning…