Participant Observation Research Paper

Paper (i) is a syntheses. A syntheses is a summary based on rigorous searches for evidence, explicit scientific reviews of the studies uncovered in the search, and systematic assembly of the evidence to provide a clear signal about the effects of the specific healthcare intervention. (Haynes, B., 2001).

There are two types of collecting data for research, which are qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research is used to gain a thorough explanation about a phenomena, and ‘is normally recognisable via the use of methods that include, at least, in-depth interview and group-moderation techniques’ (Bailey 2013)

Thus, this method gives a researcher an in-depth understanding of the participants’ experiences using qualitative inquiry to determine the why, when, where, what, and how of the study.

My participant observation research project is on sex offenders. A few topics I would be interested in is different type of offenders, such as pedophilic and non-pedophilic. I know sex offending is horrible all together but I really hate when I hear about children and teens being hurt. My questions would be what causes their urge to offend children? How do they know the victim? How to help the offender?

Participant observation is defined as first hand experience. Participant observation is a method developed by Anthropologists in the early 20th century. When Anthropologists noticed that in order to fully understand the question, “Why” in culture. Why do a certain people do this, why is that important, or why do they all do it, are just some of the questions anthropologists use participant observation. The key to participant observation is fieldwork, where the anthropologist actively lives with the people of the culture they are studying for about a year or more. Where the anthropologist goes through culture shock by leaving all their possessions at home and starting a new. This technique of studying gets the anthropologist to become one

Carina: I observed a small group of four girls around the ages of 16-19 who were all getting burritos at Chipotle. They were still wearing their volleyball outfits and clearly belonged to a group of teenage athletes. They all seemed to be friends as they were laughing and talking loudly with one another. Their visit at Chipotle seemed to be some kind of social experience for them, much more so than just going there for nutrition. When ordering they asked each other: “what are you getting”, which showed that they valued each other’s food recommendation. The girl who asked her friend that question decided to order the same food as her friend. This shows the interdependence and great influence within the group.

Over the past few weeks, I have been observing an all-girl organization by the name of EAGER Inc. I observed middle-school aged girls in Baltimore City Charter Schools. The girls have been working together for about one to two years. They interact with one another on a daily basis, and sometimes after school for programs. The groups needs came to the agency's attention through the principal of the school who noticed that the girls needed behavioral assistance. This group of girls need mentors and the appropriate guidance that will help them transform into successful young women and people who can help keep them out of trouble. The group barely got along with each other, and they always bumped heads during the sessions. The girls realized that

The search terms I used to locate this study were “academic performance” and “high school athletes.” I found the study in the SPORTDiscus with Full Text database. There were several reasons why I chose this study to analyze over other studies identified in the search results. The main reason I chose this study was because its research question most directly addressed my research topic. The other aspects of the study that made it seem worth investigating were that it was peer reviewed, it was published within the last year, and it examined students within the United States. Many of the other studies in the search results analyzed student samples from other countries; but in order to maintain consistency and keep my research topic somewhat narrow, I want to only look at studies that investigate athletics in secondary education in the United States.

Secondly, Dewaltz and Dewaltz (2002) refer to participant observation as a means of learning ‘tacit and explicit ‘aspects of people’s life routines and

Epistemological criticism argues that all approaches are unlikely to produce consistent evidence because of the inherent property. It will generate a new viewpoint. However, through abundant reading, triangulation will enlarge width and depth in qualitative research and provide an analysis with security- a overall perspective. Participants can improve the validity of research. Bloor (1978) argues that sociologists can establish a correspondence with participants, in which participants can identify, give assent and judgement to sociologists.

Using this type of research method, I can understand what I would have used other type of research method Taylor et al (1995) ‘‘argued that participant observation offers the best opportunity to discover how people see the world in which they live. It also provides the kind of insight, fresh information and new directions for research which are less likely to come from other methods. ’’

As method researchers observe, for Martineau, and her contemporary Ritzer, aesthetic considerations are as key to their method as much as scientific observation and representation. Critics have considered both Society in America, Martineau's most widely known work which attacks the reality/rhetoric issues confronting methodological strategy and ethnocentrism, and her foundational treatise on sociological theory in data collection, How to Observe Morals and Manners. These works

How does one observe while simultaneously participating? It is an awkward position for the researcher to be in—the very nature of the term “participant observation” is at odds with each other; therefore the author must keep a degree of distance in order to fully observe and record their observations. At the same time, the author must do as the locals do, which is: it is very important for the researcher to connect with members of the population. As the researcher gets to know the members of a group he or she will be studying, it is important that they learn to make friends quickly so they can be accepted in the community and obtain quality research in the form of observation, interviews, and accurately record field notes. Additionally, the researcher will have to take all their personal thoughts, interviews, and observations and organize the data with an eye towards their own biases and subjectivities. These are some of the positive aspects of participation observation, but there are many potential drawbacks as well.

As mentioned, the research method used for this study was participant observation. This was further divided into three different segments. Each of these segments featured its own distinct observation site and involved one hour of observation per site.

This section will start with a comparison of three possible methodologies for data collection: ethnography, survey (or interview) and real time experience tracking. And then sampling and data collection methods will be examined followed by a description of data analysis.