Participant Observation as Role and Method in Behavioral Research

Summery and Conclusion To summarize, participant observation is at once a role, a means of getting data, and a methodology for understanding human behavior in natural contexts. It is essential to separate and specify these several aspects when reporting research studies because only in this way is it possible to assess the influence of role, techniques, and methodological orientation on research results. As a role, participant observation implies other and reciprocal roles such as subject, respondent, informant, or perhaps semi-collaborator. To date, we do not understand the influence of any of these reciprocal roles very well. On the observer's side also, the role is temporary and to a degree “unnatural.” He may choose from a limited number of forms along a continuum from that of complete observer to that of complete participant, but we have little systematic knowledge of the effect of the role on either the quantity or quality of the data he obtains. Theoretically, the complete observer and the complete participant are least disruptive of a group's activities; but the former sacrifices completeness for objectivity while the latter sacrifices objectivity and systematic recording to gain a more complete experience of the subjects' world. In the other forms of the role, observer-as-participant and participant-as-observer, the observer acknowledges his research purpose but does not avoid entering into mutually meaningful relations. But how best to maintain the proper balance between disinterested observation and emphatic participation is still a major problem. As a device for amassing detailed information on complex events and situations, participant observation ranges from the eclecticism of the anthropologist to the parsimonious elegance of the experimental social psychologist. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the method in its broadest definition is the use of key informants as extra eyes and ears of the observer. The observer of course must still verify and evaluate the information in terms of his growing familiarity with the total picture, but he is dependent on informants within the system and acknowledges this dependence. As a methodology, participant observation is as concerned with the sociocultural and psychosocial background of human behavior as with the behavior itself. The goal therefore is maximal knowledge and understanding of human behaviors in context. The methodology is guided by, but not slavishly bound to, the theoretical assumptions of a preconceived research design. Starting with broad conceptual frameworks, the methodology emphasizes an ongoing interplay between fact and theory, and phenomena and interpretation that becomes more abstract and narrow as it seeks fewer but more controlled variables as a study progresses. The final product is a model that retains much of the identity and character of the original phenomena but in sufficiently abstract form to permit comparison with other entities of the same general type.