Participant Observation

It is amongst, one of the method to collect, record and analyze information regarding specific social issue in fieldwork research. Obtaining information through, participant observation method; requires, participation of researcher in subject daily life. Now here, readers might be having question in their minds; how does researcher obtain data, by participating in subject daily life activities? Answer to the question is simple, researcher observe and record the patterns of subject interactions and social life. Participant observation method; is used by interactionist researcher, for the reason that, it helps them to determine, the fundamental building block of society “social interactions”.  In 2000 a writer named, “Rodney Rothman” pretended to be an employ for two weeks in a New York firm called “dot com”. The purpose behind his stunt, was to analyze work environment of organization; where white collar employees’ work. He worked there for two weeks and recorded all the interactions and behavior of the employees within organization and then wrote an article on his observations, titled “my fake job” published in New York Times. However, the method which he used in his field research; for data collection was, participant observation. 

Ethnography Method

Ethnography method tends to observe that how a group of people; who live together comprehend their social standing, in society. Ethnographer areas of field research are observing, the cultural norms of small community, he could be interested in, observing the culture norms of specific tribe. Every place, which is confined by borders are used for different social purposes and have set their own standards, of expected behavior are the research area of ethnographer. Ethnographers are interested in identifying cultural norms and values which influence human behavior in a particular society, by the mean of observation. Researcher might visit a community, as a guest, to observe and record their ways of life and the roles which are expected of an individual in a community. 

Case study Method

It is used by researcher; for studying a particular social event, scenario or individual. Information regarding the study can be obtained from the following methods, past records, documents, observation, participant observation and interview. As mentioned earlier, case study method studies an individual, researcher might be interested in conducting case study on juvenile delinquent, and unique case may add a lot of knowledge to certain discipline. For example; it may explore the patterns of learning criminal behavior by a juvenile. It may determine the different causes, which lead juvenile towards committing crime. Such as growing up in bad neighborhood may lead him towards criminal behavior or may be compelled by family members or friends to commit crime. However, many researcher criticize case study method, for the reason that, it does not provide generalize result because it focuses on specific event or individual.         

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Techniques which are used for, the selection of respondents in research, called “sampling techniques”. With the help of sampling techniques researcher analyze number of respondents required for research; out of “population”. Respondents, who participate in the research or, respond to the questionnaire; are termed as “sample”. It is important for reader to know survey method is used in many fields to obtain knowledge. This method is not just limited to sociological knowledge, it is also used for other researches. An individual is frequently, bombarded with survey questionnaires. Coming out of restaurant customer receive a feedback survey questionnaire regarding product and services. Researcher can reach respondents through social media, email and telecommunication. Moreover, online polls like political poll, entertainment poll and marketing poll, are also type of survey questionnaire. However, the prime purpose of survey is to obtain data whether it’s regarding social issue or product and services.

Another instrument of data collection in survey method, is interview. One on one conversation of researcher and participant is called interview. There are two types of interviews; structured interview and unstructured interview. In structured interview respondents have been asked to answer, close-ended questions whereas, in unstructured interview respondents have been asked to answer, open-ended questions. Furthermore, if researcher is interested in multivariate data analysis for testing research hypothesis then, he should choose the “sampling technique”, “sample size” and “questionnaire measurement scales”, very carefully because, mentioned components have impact on the, reliability of test results.   

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Lab experiment is initiated by, creating an artificial environment in lab by researcher; which helps him to manipulate variables. After setting the lab, researcher select a few people with similar demographic information as subjects of experiment. Furthermore, People are randomly divided in to two groups; one group is controlled group and another is experimental group. Difference between both groups is that experimental group is exposed to independent variable and controlled group is not being exposed to the independent variable. In the above example “carbonated drink” can be categorized as independent variable and “stomach” as dependent variable. Suppose, if researcher wants to analyze “the impact of tutoring on children academic performance” from experiment method. If Researcher want to conduct experiment in lab, he has to set a lab and create artificial environment in which he is able to manipulate variable. Moreover, participants will be selected for conducting experiment, with similar academic performance, age and grade. Furthermore, participants will be divided into two groups randomly. Both group will have to prepare the same chapters of same subjects, nonetheless, controlled group will be only taught by school teacher, whereas. experimental group will be taught by school teacher and tutor, for the time period of one month. Both groups will be tested after a month, same paper would be drafted for the test. However, test result will conclude the experiment result as well. If the score of experimental group was more than controlled group, the research will be concluded as tutoring have influence on enhancing academic capabilities of a children.  Researcher has to set parameters in choosing the participants because if subject of experiment is not qualified as participant, it will affect the reliability of experiment. For example considering the tutoring experiment, if researcher select participants from different standards, the result of the experiment will be unreliable because same material will be provided to all participants for preparation, in a specific duration. Students studying in high standard might score high without any help whereas, students of lower standard may score low with tutoring. Participants should be of same standard, and academic performance should be similar as well.       

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Sociological research can be conducted from different methods, it depends on researcher which method he selects, to be reliable for his research. Following are the methods of sociological research; survey method, content analysis or secondary data analysis method, experiment method and field work method. However, application of each method has its advantages and disadvantages, therefore researcher has to decide which method would give him or her authentic findings. Furthermore, researcher has to collect data for conducting research, there are different tools for collecting data such as, interview, questioners, focus group discussion, observation and case study. Each data collection method is different from others. Whereas, data are of two types; primary data and secondary data, both data are vital for conducting research.

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