RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

NATURALISTIC AND PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION 405
observations, comments, behaviour, events and
activities and the views of all participants in a situation.
Participant observation is often combined
with other forms of data collection that, together,
elicit the participants’ definitions of the situation
and their organizing constructs in accounting for
situations and behaviour. By staying in a situation
over a long period the researcher is also
able to see how events evolve over time, catching
the dynamics of situations, the people, personalities,
contexts, resources, roles etc. Morrison (1993:
88) argues that by ‘being immersed in a particular
context over time not only will the salient
features of the situation emerge and present themselves
but a more holistic view will be gathered of
the interrelationships of factors’. Such immersion
facilitates the generation of ‘thick descriptions’,
particularly of social processes and interaction,
which lend themselves to accurate explanation
and interpretation of events rather than relying
on the researcher’s own inferences. The data derived
from participant observation are ‘strong on
reality’.
Components of ‘thick descriptions’ involve
recording (Carspecken 1996: 47), for example:
speech acts; non-verbal communication; descriptions
in low-inference vocabulary; careful and
frequent recording of the time and timing of
events; the observer’s comments that are placed
into categories; detailed contextual data.
Observations are recorded in field notes; these
can be written at several levels (see http://
www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415368780 –
Chapter 18, file 18.8.ppt). At the level of description
(Spradley 1980; Bogdan and Biklen 1992:
120–1; LeCompte and Preissle 1993: 224), observations
can take the following forms:
quick, fragmentary jottings of key words/
symbols
transcriptions and more detailed observations
written out fully
descriptions that, when assembled and written
out, form a comprehensive and comprehensible
account of what has happened
pen portraits of participants
reconstructions of conversations
descriptions of the physical settings of events
descriptions of events, behaviour and activities
adescriptionoftheresearcher’sactivitiesand
behaviour.
Lincoln and Guba (1985: 273) suggest a variety
of elements or types of observations that include:
ongoing notes, either verbatim or categorized
in situ
logs or diaries of field experiences (similar to
field notes though usually written some time
after the observations have been made)
notes that are made on specific, predetermined
themes (e.g. that have arisen from grounded
theory)
‘chronologs’, where each separate behavioural
episode is noted, together with the time at
which it occurred, or recording an observation
at regular time intervals, e.g. every two or three
minutes
context maps: maps, sketches, diagrams or
some graphic display of the context (usually
physical) within which the observation takes
place, such graphics enabling movements to be
charted
entries on predetermined schedules (including
rating scales, checklists and structured observation
charts), using taxonomic or categoric
systems, where the categories derive from previous
observational or interview data
sociometric diagrams indicating social relationships,
e.g. isolates (whom nobody chooses),
stars (whom everyone chooses) and dyads (who
choose each other)
debriefing questionnaires from respondents
that are devised for, and by, the observer only,
to be used for reminding the observer of main
types of information and events once she or he
has left the scene
data from debriefing sessions with other
researchers, again as an aide-memoire.
LeCompte and Preissle (1993: 199–200)
provide a useful set of guidelines for directing
observations of specific activities, events or scenes,
suggesting that they should include answers to the
following questions:
Chapter 18