Primary Quantitative - Non-participant Observation

Question 1

What does the researcher record in non-participant observation?

Answer 1

Records things of interest

Produces quantitative data to measure behaviour being observed

Question 2

Which two ways can non-participant observation be carried out?

Answer 2

Covertly - group are unaware of researchers true identity

Overtly - group are aware of researchers true identity

Question 3

How did Hargreaves carry out his non-participant observation?

Answer 3

Carried out his observation overtly where the group were aware of his true identity

May have chosen to conduct his observation this way to observe how behaviour changed when he was present

Question 4

What effect did Hargreaves have on the teachers in his non-participant observation?

Answer 4

Had the Hawthorne effect on the teachers he was observing because they changed their behaviour which will have made the data less valid

Question 5

How could Hargreaves have avoided the Hawthorne effect in his non-participant observation?

Answer 5

Could have been avoided by conducting a covert observation however this would have been unethical because you wouldn’t have informed consent

Question 6

Why would Hargreaves non-participant observation be low in representivity?

Answer 6

Low in representativeness because his observation only took place in one school and the sample size is therefore too small to make generalisations to the wider population

Question 7

Why would positivists use non-participant observation?

Answer 7

Would use non-participant observation because they create quantitative data which is high in reliability and they can identify trends and correlations from the data

Question 8

Why would interpretivists criticise non-participant observation?

Answer 8

Would criticise non-participant observation because they cannot gain verstehen from quantitative data because it lacks the detail and high validity interpretivists like