CRIM 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Participatory Action Research, Participant Observation, Informed Consent
25 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Observation: research strategy involving looking in a planned and strategic way with a purpose. Observation: the selection, provocation, recording and encoding of that set of behaviors and organisms in situ which is consistent with empirical aims. Selection reminds researchers that observation is not a process where everything is recorded visually: anything outside one"s field of vision cannot be seen. Desirable to study multiple behaviors and different measures of the same behavior. Must understand the role of context, in situ: elements as where it occurs, explanation that is given for the observation, the nature of the relationship between observer and observed. Must leave empirical aims intentionally open ended. Most advantage of observation is that we can see things unfold in the setting in which they usually unfold. We have an opportunity to actually witness the choices people make in context: observational researcher chooses to be in a situation and is prepared to observe with a notebook.
