Observation Designs and Participation Levels
Participant observation means actually joining the group you're studying, which builds trust and provides insider insights. This method works brilliantly for accessing suspicious groups like gangs, but you risk getting emotionally involved and losing objectivity.
Non-participant observation keeps researchers at a distance thinkOFSTEDinspectionsorone−waymirrors, maintaining objectivity but potentially missing subtle behaviours that only insiders would notice.
Structured observations use predetermined categories to organise data collection, making analysis straightforward and quantitative. However, these rigid categories might miss important unexpected behaviours that don't fit your original framework.
Key insight: The Hawthorne effect occurs when people change their behaviour simply because they know they're being observed - this can completely skew your research results.
Unstructured observations record everything relevant without preset categories, perfect for pilot studies or exploring completely new research areas. Whilst this flexibility captures rich qualitative data, it makes establishing clear cause-and-effect relationships incredibly difficult.