1. Participant Observation
Moshe Banai, PhD

2. Participant Observation
Overview of Data Gathering Techniques:
Participant Observation
Interviews
Focus Groups
Archival Research
Documents
Public Records
Personal Documents
Photographs

3. Participant Observation
What is it? Gathering data while experiencing subjects’ social contexts with them. Sometimes called “ethnography”
Long term interaction and proximity with group being studied
getting close, people feel comfortable with your presence allowing you to observe and record their lives
with rapport and acting like them, people go about their business as usual when you are around
if you go native you are no longer doing research - you are just living
Remove yourself daily from the research setting to put it into perspective, including making notes and some analysis
Doesn't rule out administering formal surveys or other structured data collection tasks

4. Participant Observation
Objectives:
Gain holistic perspective on social living.
To understand how things work
emic: understanding how people view their world
etic: how researcher views their world
Real view of how people behave in their settings
See guiding principles of an organization, setting, sub-group, or culture
Capture social meanings shared by a group
To understand how it feels to be a member of a given group

5. Participant Observation
Information you get:
The setting—physical environment
Social environment and human interactions
Actual behaviors in a setting
Native language of the setting being studied
Nonverbal communication (dress, opinions, spacing during discussions, arrangement of actors)
Notable non-occurrences

6. Participant Observation
Getting Access:
Why it may be hard to get in:
Personal attributes (age, gender, skin color, nationality, class, sexual orientation)
Research topic
First impression
Covert, overt, or semi-overt research?

7. Participant Observation
Covert/overt research
Most observations nowadays are semi-overt
Covert – the ethnographer does not reveal their ‘true’ identity
Overt – the participants are aware of the researcher’s motives and they grant their consent for the data to be used

8. Participant Observation
Different roles (Gold, 1958)
Complete participant (covert)
Participant as observer (overt)
Observer as participant (overt)
Complete observer (overt)
This distinction is not always useful – you are never simply an observer

9. ‘Going native’
When the observer becomes a member of the studied group/ loses the sense of being a researcher
May be dangerous but it happens
Religious conversion, romantic involvement with a research participant, taking on the views of the group studied

10. Participant Observation
Getting Access
Among a set of reasonable sites, choose the one that is easiest to get into
Be prepared with lots of written documentation about yourself and your project. Grant proposals, resumes, examples of past work, and letters of introduction from your university, granting agency, boss, etc.

11. Participant Observation
Getting Access
Depend on social capital. Come with a list of specific people to look up that are acquaintances of people you know
With organizations, start at the top and work down -- get to the gatekeepers first. Assure them confidentiality, and don't offer a quid quo pro that could harm your informants

12. Participant Observation
Getting Access
Have ready answers that describe your research, what will be done with the results, etc.
Do your homework and learn about the setting before you get there. Get comfortable with the physical setting

13. Participant Observation
Options for data collection:
Complete observation: “open recording”
May change behaviors more
Participation and observation
Covert participation: “fly on wall”
Is it ethical?
Is it necessary?
Sometimes are forced by persons to take sides
Figure out: My behavior is normal for situation or it is interference, changing things

14. Participant Observation
How many observers?
More than one:
may remove bias
has higher costs
may change behaviors more

15. Participant Observation
Ways of recording events and impressions:
Notes
Audio
Video
For analysis purposes, almost all records will be analyzed as text

16. Participant Observation
Types of notes:
Field (descriptive)-when observing, one should:
Describe the setting
Identify the people
Describe the content of the activities
Document the interactions
Describe and assess
Be alert to unanticipated things

17. Participant Observation
Types of notes:
Theoretical
Personal
How much data do you gather? Not Clear
Avoid atypical situations
Carry out more than one observation
Spread observations over time

18. Participant Observation
What should be recorded?
Impossible to record everything
Sophistication comes with time
Detailed can be good
Especially if we are dealing with conversations and emotional situations

19. Participant Observation
When and How?
When? ASAP, best during an observation but not always possible
How? Rushed and fragmented, key words, pictures and drawings, even elaborate notes need refining
CONSISTENCY! ‘If in doubt, write it down’

20. Participant Observation
Types of field notes:
Jottings – brief phrases to be developed
Description – everything you recall about the occasion (time, place, people, surroundings, animals, smells, sounds etc.)
Analysis – what have you learned so far?
Reflection – what was it like for you?

21. Participant Observation
How long does it take?
For very sensitive topics with real strangers, can take a year. Studies show that ethnographies that took less time tend to make scant reference to sensitive topics (sexuality, crime, witchcraft, political feuds, etc)
For simple settings with little that is sensitive (e.g., studying a Laundromat), a couple of weeks will do

22. Participant Observation
Researcher Skills
Learn the language-language, dialect, jargon, phrases, buzz words, styles
Become consciously aware of what people are doing and saying. Otherwise you take in what you expected to see rather than what you saw
Maintain posture of apprentice. Informants are experts in their culture. You are ignorant. You learn more this way

23. Participant Observation
Researcher Skills
Store information in an organized and routinely thorough way. Good note taking skills
Patience. Trust takes time, learning new understandings” takes time
Practice Objectivity. Personal ideas can ‘kill’ accuracy
Your beliefs may not fit your research context. Don’t try to empty your mind of pre-conceived notions and don't try to disbelieve what you believe. Just be aware that alternative views are possible
Be extremely wary of personal outrage, indignation, and similar feelings. They are pleasurable because they produce feelings of self-worth and purposefulness. You will believe ideas, thoughts that make you feel that way

24. Participant Observation
Advantages of Observations:
Direct information about behavior of individuals and groups
Permits researcher to enter and understand situation/context
Good opportunities to identify unanticipated outcomes
Natural, non-artificially structured, and flexible setting
Reduces reactivity - people changing behavior because they are being watched

25. Participant Observation
Disadvantages of Observations:
Expensive and time consuming
Need well-qualified, highly trained observers; may need content experts
Done poorly, may affect behavior of participants
Selective perception of observer may distort data
Investigator has little control over the situation
May observe atypical behaviors

26. Participant Observation
Participant observation’s sociological role
Certain topics cannot be studied by other means. Some groups won't let you see anything unless you are part of their lives (like criminal networks)
Many settings are too intricate to be understood with piecemeal techniques. Think of understanding court settings
Helps formulate survey questions that are sensible and appropriately phrased

27. Participant Observation
Participant observation’s sociological role
Intuitive understanding of contexts that allow you to interpret other findings more meaningfully
Participant observation is respectful of subjects. Rather than just hitting them up for data, you invest your time in them and treat them like experts in their setting
Pedagogically, research based in participant observation is often the most convincing, easily understood sociological research

28. Participant Observation
Aftermath
Keeping in touch: a moral obligation?
Feeding the data back to the participants
Follow-up research