'Examine The Advantages Some Sociologists May Finds When Using Participant Observation\r'

'Participant observance is where the tec joins the classify or community they ar studying, the tec will participate in the activities everywhere a period of date, to do this, the researcher attempts to beat accepted in decree to collect more than effectual research and to try and see the creative activity in the focussing the radical does. There argon two types of role player posting, C visible and Overt.Covert participant musing is where the researcher will admit an undercover division in order to do research into the conclave they wish to study, at that place is normally a ‘ supply keeper’ in spite of appearance this sort that knows the researcher is there to do research, the gate keeper helps get them into the group to do this research. Overt participant comment is where the researcher takes a more open role; they openly ask the group if they will allow the researcher to study them.Interpretivists prefer participant observations as they get b y that it’s the most effective way to derive the centres people give on certain things, they in addition prefer it as there is a greater chance of developing their understanding further by verstehen. An advantage of surreptitious participant observation could be that more valid research will be doned as they study is true to life when comp atomic number 18d to overt research. With overt participant observation there commode be a risk of exposure of less valid selective information due to the Hawthorne Effect; this is where the presence of the researcher crowd out affect the way the participants behave.With both covert and overt participant observations rapports can be do which whitethorn lead to more valid data and data that is normally hard to reach as the group that the researcher is studying will scram to trust them. However, this can take time and can be less practical. An example of this is Eileen Barker’s study on the Unification Church, she studied th e ‘Moonie’s’ over 7 years, gaining the trust of the participants, who soon proverb her as a friend, thus enabling her to gain more valid and truthful research.By doing this, Barker gained verstehen meaning she could understand the feelings of the people she was studying, empathising with them; as a go she developed a further understanding of their way of life. Other practical issues with covert participant observation are that it can be hard to drive a gate keeper to let the researcher into the group. Both covert and overt research are very time consuming and cost a lot, so the study must be value the time of studying.Both covert and overt observations can be low in reliability as they are hard to replicate and get consistent results. Researchers may remember and interpret things differently thus minify the reliability of the research even further. This tends to be more of a disadvantage with covert research as they are unable to write down everything the gr oup being studied says as it will risk their cover and could ruin the research.With an overt role, this can be avoided as they are able to take notes in the open, and can use different types of methods such as interviews or questionnaires. Covert participant observation tends to be more unethical than overt participant observation as the researcher doesn’t ask the group for consent thus deceiving the group, the researcher may take part in illegal acts in order to maintain cover, an example of this is Patrick, he studied a gang in Glasgow over four months, during his time in the gang he was required to contact in burglaries to keep the trust of the gang.To prevent this, researchers may want to take more of an overt role, which office they have an honest and open role within the group, meaning there is no deception and they won’t have to take part in illegal acts. Positivists don’t like participant observation as it’s hard for them to roll up quantitativ e data, so they aren’t able to mouth or see patterns or trends.\r\n'