What is participant observation?What are the advantages and disadvantages of P.O?
What is participant observation?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of P.O?
Research alludes to the thorough investigation of individuals, establishments, or social phenomena utilizing estimation methods, for example, studies, interviews, focus groups, ethnography, or far-reaching examination of writings. The sociological analysis may likewise incorporate the investigation of information gathered by government offices or different sources.
Participant observation is an essential qualitative method of data collection usually practiced in ethnology. Its point is to acquire a nearby and intimate knowledge of a given gathering of people (for example, social gathering or a specific local area) and their practices through an escalated contribution with individuals in their social climate, usually over an extended period.
The three key steps of participant observation are as follows:
- Getting into that area of which the human experiences, researcher wishes to examine.
2. Building rapport with the participants.
3. Spending enough time in interaction to get the required data.
Following are some advantages and disadvantages of Participant observation:
Advantages:
- It lends validity to a proposed theory.
- It provides high levels of flexibility for researchers.
- It has practical advantages to data collection that other methods cannot use.
- It helps in capturing changing attitudes.
- It opens the door for researcher speculation.
Disadvantages:
- Participant observation has a high risk of biasness.
- It is a time taking process.
- It relies heavily on the skills of the researcher.
- It gathers situation-specific data.
- Researchers need to have familiarity with the subject matter they wish to study.
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