The Pros and Cons of Participant Observation Essay

Within this assignment there will be a clear demonstration and understanding of the concept of research in relation to the acquisition of underpinning knowledge appropriate to my programme of study. I will also be undertaking a comparative analysis of the nature and validity of quantitative and qualitative research methods. I will also be demonstrating skills in critical analysis of methods of data collection and selection of appropriate methods to informing future working practice. I will also be analyse the ethical considerations in relation to the development and undertaking of research.

‘Employing a qualitative methodology, underpinned by a constructivist world view, has provided the means to generate rich, deep and contextualised understandings of the research issue, and an appreciation of the socially constructed and experienced realities of the participants.’ (Highfield 2012)

In order to effectively research whether ethnicity, age, gender, and race have an effect on how an individual view a certain topic such as police brutality I will be observing the group as a participant: asking questions to the group about the topic, looking for reactions and in the end handing

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.

Qualitative research reflects different ways that researcher’s collect data and explore all of the information through literature review. Participant’s that are reviewing is often observed for analysis while “the role of the researcher focuses as the primary data collection instrument necessitates the identification of personal values, assumptions and biases at the outset of the study; Qualitative researchers ask at least one central question” (Creswell, 2014, which can be explored in several contexts with further questions. According to the text Research Design (2014) “the researcher’s role is typically involved in a

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

This observation is based on a family consisting of a young professional married couple and their three year old daughter. I observed them for one hour over three weeks, in the evening to fit into their schedules. They have lived in the borough of Croydon in their three bedroom house for six years. For the purpose of this assignment all the names have been changed and the family

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.

Each of them has been recorded and abruptly transcribed so that it is possible to have access to all the data that could be required for a future study on the subject, since it would be impossible to replicate the study. In fact, when an interview method is used for a study, with the decrease of rigid structure, reliability decreases too. However the author's choice of using this method is understandable since the aim of the study was to show how does it feels living outside the constructed structure of society and no other method could be more accurate in the description of this. Interviews allow a deep analysis of facts are one of the most powerful ways for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences (McNamara, 1999).

The research should not harm the participant and at no point should they feel distressed or uncomfortable, the participant needs to obtain the correct information and at no point be deceived or lied to (Diniz, 2008). The participant needs to be seen as an individual not just a number and needs to take into account that they are unique and will respond differently to other participants. Furthermore, the participant needs to agree to take part in the research on their own accord and must not be forced into partaking. Social research and the experiments conducted to acquire the research sometimes have ripple effects that can cause unanticipated consequences on the community. The community and in particular community psychologists need to identify an ethical dilemma that could result from social research when they see one, understand the fundamentals of the predicament, and decide what a solution should include

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. ’’

This assignment is going to look into observation as a social work tool and skill. Firstly, it is going to briefly describe the observation. Secondly it will analyse the interactions using a reflective approach. And finally, it will look into some relevant social work skills and values that relate to the discussed topic.

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.

Qualitative research methods are utilized to study the social and cultural phenomena. So it includes observation, participant observation (field work), interview sessions, documents and texts and finally the researcher’s imitations and feedback. [Myers, 2009]