Participant Observation Advantages and Disadvantages

Beschreibung

AS level Sociology Mindmap am Participant Observation Advantages and Disadvantages, erstellt von Ronnie Barter am 28/02/2018.
Ronnie Barter
Mindmap von Ronnie Barter, aktualisiert more than 1 year ago
Ronnie Barter
Erstellt von Ronnie Barter vor fast 7 Jahre
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Zusammenfassung der Ressource

Participant Observation Advantages and Disadvantages
  1. Advantages
    1. Validity
      1. What people say they do in questionnaires is different from what they may do.
        1. Produces rich qualitative data
        2. Insight
          1. Allows sociologist to feel empathy for participants.
            1. Gives insight into peoples private and un-influenced lives
            2. Flexibility
              1. Sociologists don't start with a set hypothesis
                1. Sociologists may change their mind and can alter their research accordingly
                2. Practical Advantages
                  1. May be the only way to study certain groups
                    1. Such as criminals
                      1. Such as religious sects
                      2. Allows sociologist to build rapport with those being studied
                    2. Disadvantages
                      1. Practical Disadvantages
                        1. Time consuming as well as costly
                          1. Personally stressful and demanding
                            1. Requires observational skills
                              1. Personal characteristics may cause issues with being covert
                                1. Groups may be able to refuse or restrict access
                                2. Ethical issues
                                  1. Covert observation creates ethical difficulties as it intrinsically requires deception
                                    1. Some groups may not have the ability to refuse participant obeervation and they may not consent to being observed
                                    2. Representitiveness
                                      1. Due to the cost and the amount of time it would take very few people can be observed
                                        1. Lack of representativeness leads to an inability to accurately/effectively generalise
                                          1. "Internally" valid insights are not externally valid
                                          2. Reliability
                                            1. Reliability is the ability to repeat a research method and get similar/the same results
                                              1. Participant observation depends on the skills of the researcher meaning that it would be difficult for a different researcher to replicate it
                                                1. A groups actions may be due to a variety of different pre-existing reasons which are impossible to control for
                                                2. Bias
                                                  1. Researchers run the risk of...
                                                    1. "Going native"
                                                      1. Loyalty or fear of reprisal may push a sociologist to hide sensitive information
                                                        1. Sociologists may romanticise a group and come to see them as an underdog and justify their actions
                                                      2. Validity
                                                        1. Validity may be damaged as sociologists decide what is worth recording
                                                          1. A sociologist may only record what fits their prejudices
                                                            1. May not create a "naturalistic" account
                                                            2. The Hawthorne Effect damages validity
                                                            3. Lack of structure
                                                              1. Interactionalists favour participant observation as they see society on a small scale
                                                                1. Structural sociologists (such as marxists) reject this arguing that the observer tends to ignore the wider structural forces changing our behaivour
                                                                  1. Structuralists believe that looking at life through the eyes of the actor will never give us the complete picture
                                                                    1. For example if the actors aren't aware of structural influences in their life
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