POL 2156 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Participant Observation, Focus Group

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POL 2156
• Professor: Stephanie Mullen

Document Summary

Participant observation is useful for gaining an understanding of the: Physical, social, cultural, and economic contexts in which study participants live. The relationships among and between people, contexts, ideas, norms, and events; People"s behaviors and activities what they do, how frequently, and with whom. Enables researchers to develop a familiarity with the cultural milieu. Data obtained through participant observation serves as a check against participants" subjective reporting of what they believe and do. Researchers can uncover factors important for a thorough understanding o the research problem that were unknown when the study was designed. What we learn from participants observation can help us: Understand data collected through other methods (such as interviews, focus groups, and quantitative research methods. Design questions for those methods that will give us the best understanding of the phenomenon being studied. Participant observation may be done prior to other data collection, as well as simlultaneously with other methods and during data analysis.