Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of observation technique.

 Following are some of the merits of observation method:

i) It is a simple method of data collection.

ii) Observation is the most direct means of studying a wide variety of phenomena based on actual and first-hand experience.

iii) It enables the observer to study and record behaviour at the time of its occurrence.

iv) Data collected under this method is more accurate and reliable, as it is based on the first hand perception of the eyes. Non-participant observation, however, may provide limited insight into the meaning of the social context studied. If this contextual understanding is important, participant observation might be needed.

v) It enables data collection on a large size of the population at one time.

vi) Non-participant observation does not depend on people’s cooperation with the researcher.

vii) Participant observation, in which researchers join people and participate in a group’s routine activities for the purpose of observing them within that context, lets researchers study a naturally occurring social activity. This fosters an in depth and rich understanding of a phenomenon, situation and/or setting and the behaviour of the participants within that setting.

Observation, as method of study and data collection, however raises many ethical questions. Particularly, participant observation is a much debated method among all social science research methods.

i) The researcher lives with the people being studied for relatively a longer period of time, participates in their day-to-day activities, observes them from close quarters, gains access to the intimate aspects of social, cultural life of people. At the same time s/he has the task of recording of the observed events, phenomena, activities in a faithful manner. Bernard (1988) suggests that what could clearly be considered as ‘gossip’ during informal conversation can become data for the researcher. Such kind of issues becomes part of the ethical concerns of the social science research. It is often questioned that whether the researcher informs the people she interacts with for data collection about the usage of such information.

ii) Further, there are ethical questions regarding the publication of information collected through field notes. Related to this is the preservation of anonymity of participants identified in field notes. It is suggested that with computerization maintenance of anonymity becomes easier than otherwise.

iii) Another concern raised about the limitation of participant observation is the extent of attachment developed by the researcher with the respondents or informants during field work. During participant observation the researchers often get so involved that they tend to lose objectivity in their observation. Critics go to the extent of questioning how valid participant observation really is. They argue the method lacks objectivity. It can be very difficult for the researcher to avoid subjectivity and forming biased views of the group being studied.

iv) Also researchers decide what is significant and worth recording and what’s not, therefore, it depends on the values of the researcher. In extreme cases, researchers might ‘go native’, where they become sympathetic with the respondents and omit any negative analysis of their way of life.

v) Personal factors of the researcher become critical in participant observation. Factors like age, sex, race, ethnic background, presentation of self may influence the process of observation. For example, Dewatt and Dewatt (2002) note that male and female researchers have access to different information, as they have access to different people, settings, and bodies of knowledge.

vi) Basic understanding of cultural aspects of the group or community studied on the part of the researcher may be essential for a good observation. Researcher proceeds for observation with theoretical framework and prefixed hypotheses with an assumption to test them. Sometimes these may become so fixed that the researcher ignores the other equally significant events in the field. It is a widely held notion that social scientists, how much ever they try to restrain from imposing their values, ideas, beliefs in observation, fail to capture social reality objectively.

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