observations research paper topics

Bhandari, P. (2022, December 02). Naturalistic Observation | Definition, Guide, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/naturalistic-observation/

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Home » Observational Research – Methods and Guide

Observational Research – Methods and Guide

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Observational Research

What is Observational Research?

Observational research is a form of research that relies on observations of natural phenomena or human behavior. This type of research is often used to learn more about how people behave and how the environment affects their behavior. Observational studies can be used to study a variety of topics, including health, social behavior, and environmental issues.

Observation

What is Observational?

Observation is the act of looking at and analyzing the world around you. It can be done through either your eyes or your mind. Through observation, we can learn about our surroundings and how they work. We can also learn about ourselves and how we interact with the world around us. Observation is an important tool for learning and understanding, and it can be used in a variety of fields.

Observational Research Types

Observational Research is Divided into Five main types:

Naturalistic Observation

Participant Observation

Structured Observation

Case studies, archival research.

Naturalistic observation is a research method often used by psychologists and other social scientists. This type of research involves observing subjects in their natural environment, without any interference from the researcher. This allows for a more realistic and unbiased view of the subject’s behavior.

Participant observation is a similar method, but with one key difference: the researcher becomes a part of the environment they are observing. This allows for a more intimate look at the subject’s behavior, but can also introduce bias into the research.

Structured observation is a type of observational research in which the researcher observes the behavior of subjects in a controlled environment. This type of research is often used in laboratory settings.

Case studies are another type of observational research in which the researcher observes the behavior of a small number of subjects over an extended period of time.

Archival research is a third type of observational research in which the researcher looks at records that have been created by other people.

Observational Research Data Collection Methods

There are two main types of observational data collection methods:

Direct Observation

Participant observation.

Direct observation involves observing people’s behavior without their knowledge. Researchers use this method to collect data about people’s natural behavior in a given setting.

Participant observation involves becoming a part of the group that is being studied. Researchers use this method to collect data about people’s behavior in a given setting while also gaining insight into the culture and social norms of the group.

Observational Data Analysis Methods

Observational Data Analysis Methods are:

Cross-sectional

Case-control, ecological studies.

Cross-sectional studies compare different groups of individuals at a single point in time. They are useful for studying rare exposures or outcomes, but cannot be used to establish causal relationships.

Cohort studies follow a group of individuals over time. They can be used to study both rare exposures and common outcomes, and can establish temporal relationships between exposure and outcome. However, they are often expensive and time-consuming to conduct.

Case-control studies compare individuals with a particular outcome (cases) to those without that outcome (controls). They are useful for studying rare outcomes, but may be biased if cases and controls are not comparable.

Ecological studies are important for understanding how ecosystems function and how they are affected by human activity. Ecologists use a variety of techniques to study ecosystems, including field observations, experiments, and modeling.

Observational Research Example

One example of observational research is a study conducted by sociologist William Foote Whyte on the effects of neighborhood design on crime rates. In this study, Whyte and his team observed the neighborhoods of two cities

And found that the latter had significantly lower rates of crime.

This example demonstrates how observational research can be used to provide valuable insights into human behavior. When done correctly, it can be an extremely powerful tool for understanding the world around us

How to Conduct Observational Research

When conducting observational research, there are several things to keep in mind in order to ensure that the research is conducted properly.

When to use Observational Research

There are a few things to keep in mind when deciding if observational research is the right method to use.

Also see Ethnographic Research

Advantages of Observational Research

There are several advantages to using observational research, including the following:

Also see Focus Groups in Qualitative Research

Disadvantages of Observational Research

Observational research has a number of disadvantages compared to other types of research.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

I am Muhammad Hassan, a Researcher, Academic Writer, Web Developer, and Android App Developer. I have worked in various industries and have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience. In my spare time, I enjoy writing blog posts and articles on a variety of Academic topics. I also like to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in the IT industry to share my knowledge with others through my writing.

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Good Example Of Field Observation Research Paper

Type of paper: Research Paper

Topic: Observation , Information , Researcher , Data Collection , Criminology , Data Analysis , Nature , Time

Words: 2000

Published: 08/19/2021

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Criminology is one of the fields that rely on research to answer some phenomena. There are different data collection approaches, which criminology researchers could use to evaluate the performance or to understand a specific concept. Field observation is one of these methods. The method entails the collection of data from their natural setting. Investigative experts must adhere to specific elements and procedures when conducting data using the technique. The steps include answering questions that would guide the acceptance and the use of the technique to collect data. The subsequent step would be the determination of the type of field observation technique to use. Criminology researchers could use direct or unobtrusive field observation. The next segment is recording the observations. Field notes have been useful in recording these observations. The tool is useful in answering questions such as the question of who, what, when, and how. Data analysis tools such as Qualitative data analysis (QDA) software, Microsoft OneNote, Scrivener, and Dedoose would be useful in the evaluation of the findings of the observation. The use of the tool would demand the evaluation of its benefits and drawbacks. The advantages of using field observation include its directness and longitudinal nature. On the other hand, the Hawthorne Effect remains the biggest problem of the field observation method. The other issue is the lack of control of the study because of biases and human error. The use of the method is useful in the collection of data, but there is a need for the analysis of its setbacks.

Introduction

Research in criminology is necessary for the understanding of some phenomenon related to the field. The selection of the methodology depends on the aims of the research. One of the approaches to collecting criminology data for analysis is field observation. The technique entails the collection of statistical information from their natural or non-laboratory settings. This paper examines field observation as a method of collecting data. The paper would focus on the process of conducting field observation, its advantages and disadvantages in a criminology case.

Field Observation

Field observation is a critical qualitative analysis method, which seeks to collect information from participants based on their natural setting. The selection of the use of this data collection is after answering several questions. The top issues a researcher must answer before incorporating this approach include, is the topic sensitive? Is there enough time to collect data? Is it possible to observe the phenomena? Answering the above questions positively would be the first vital step of field observation.

The two major field observation approaches are direct and unobtrusive. The former involves the participants being aware of the exercise. Under direct continuous monitoring, the researcher would record as much behavior as possible. The time allocation approach entails the researcher selecting a place and time randomly before carrying out the research. Conversely, the unobtrusive observation involves secretly observing the behavior of the target population (Alison Bryant, Liebeskind, and Gestin, 2017; Ciesielska, Boström, and Öhlander, 2018). The major unobtrusive observations are behavior trace studies and disguised field observation. Behavior trace studies encompass observation of the things the target population leaves behind. On the other hand, a researcher in the disguised field observation would select to blend with the target group to secretly record behaviors. Criminology researchers utilize any of the above approaches depending on their preferences. However, criminology researchers prefer working in disguise because of the risks of the Hawthorne Effect.

How Field Observations are Conducted

Several elements and procedures must be available when conducting field observation as a research methodology.

The first step is to answer these critical questions “is the topic sensitive?” “Is there enough time to collect data?” “Is it possible to observe the phenomena?” These questions touch on the critical elements that define a field observation research. Proper answers to the above questions would provide proof to the researcher that field observation is the best option. A negative response to the above questions suggests that the selection of the methodology would not yield desirable outcomes.

The next step is the determination of the type of field observation technique to use. There are options for direct and unobtrusive field observation. The selection of the field observation technique would depend on the target population for observation, time, the sensitivity of the matter, and the place for observation. Each of the above field observations has unique features, which the researcher must be aware of before deciding on its inclusion as the method of collecting data.

For instance, in the case of unobtrusive observations, the researcher must operate in secrecy because of the sensitivity of the topic. Research on a stigmatized population would require the researcher to act in secrecy, as exposure would influence the actions of the target population. Covert observation is essential in cases such as offender profiling, where any hint of the observation by the lawbreakers would result in a massive change of character. The researcher could select being a passive observer, a participant-observer, or a full and active participant. For the above reasons, the selection of the type of field observation would depend on the anticipated outcome by the researcher.

Recording of the field operations is a critical step when using field observation as a method of collecting data. A proper record of the observed traits would help eliminate instances of the researcher forgetting the actions in precision. The most significant risk, in this case, is bias and credibility issues. During criminology research, some of the field records include notes and other forms of data collection.

Field notes remain the most crucial field record. The document is factual and comprehensive, and it entails all critical information involving field observation. The approach includes descriptive and reflection notes on what happened in the field. One of the important elements that appear in the note is the question of who, what, when, and how. The reflection segment is important in capturing the thoughts, ideas, and questions of the researcher during the entire exercise. Field note is an important tool in criminology research. The investigative person or body must prepare this document as part of the crime analysis steps.

Other observation recording tools include audio, video, images, and documents. The researcher would utilize audio to reflect and describe the entire process. A video would be critical during the analysis process, as it could be difficult to collect vital data during the fieldwork process. Images are also important in the evaluation of the elements seen in the field. Documents could also turn into focal points during data analysis.

The subsequent step is data management and analysis. The analysis of the information collected is necessary for leading to positive findings. The researcher could select to transcribe the audio or video and record them as text files. Besides, there is the use of software like the Qualitative data analysis (QDA) software to boost data management and analysis Kanygin and Koretckaia, 2021; Michalovich, 2021). . Other possible data analysis tools researchers use under field observation techniques are Microsoft OneNote, Scrivener, and Dedoose. A researcher must conduct extensive research on the available data analysis tools before settling for the best option. In some instances, researchers could select to use manual analysis for simpler projects.

The criminology researcher must ensure the approach adheres to ethical and legal considerations. From the above discussion, criminology researchers prefer covert observations because of their nature of work. However, there are risks of ethical issues with this method. Research standards call for the incorporation of ethical practices when collecting data. Besides, a criminal researcher must seek informed consent. Similarly, the selection of a covert approach would generate debates.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Field Observation

Field observations, like any other form of data collection method, have advantages and disadvantages. A researcher must factor in these elements before selecting to use the technique as a method of collecting data.

Benefits of Field Observation

The first proof of field observation is its directness. A researcher would have the chance of collecting data as they happen. The elimination of the need to ask participants about a phenomenon saves time and the risks of unverified information. The research technique removes the element of artificiality that accompanies the rest of the data collection methods. The direct nature is also critical among participants who might lack the ability to express their opinion.

The longitudinal nature of the approach improves the quality of findings. Unlike the case of approaches such as surveys or experiments, field observation involves the luxury of the extension of the study period. The researcher could choose to prolong the study as part of the strategy to boost the findings. Time is a retraining factor in the case of a survey or experiment. The researcher has to operate within a certain period, unlike in the case of field observation.

Disadvantages Field Observation

The primary con of field observation is the Hawthorne Effect. Participants would likely act differently if they have an idea of being watched (Purssell et al., 2020). The use of direct field observation presents an opportunity for the participants to change their behavior and accommodate the possible wish of the researcher. Besides, it is difficult to observe the behavior of an individual since it changes over time. The credibility of this approach is always in question because of the Hawthorne Effect.

Lack of control is the other risk that accompanies observation. A researcher could exhibit instances of human error when observing and collecting data. The effect of this error would be visible even in the findings. The researcher bias is the other risk. Since the expert records activities according to their observation, there is the risk of the inclusion of wrong information. The subjective nature of the research eliminates the ability of the researcher to collect and present the right information.

The smallness in sample size is the other problem that accompanies field observation. An individual only has the capability of observing a controlled sample size. The subjective nature of the research demands the sample size to be at a minimum. Accordingly, the findings of the research could not be used to represent an entire population authoritatively.

Field observation is one of the most significant methods of collecting data in criminology researches. The vital steps of field observation include preparation, data collection, and data analysis. The approach has advantages and disadvantages, which a criminology researcher must consider before using it to collect data.

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Alison Bryant, J., Liebeskind, K., & Gestin, R. (2017). Observational Methods. The International Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods , 1-10.

Ciesielska, M., Boström, K. W., & Öhlander, M. (2018). Observation methods. In Qualitative methodologies in organization studies (pp. 33-52). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Kanygin, G., & Koretckaia, V. (2021). Analytical Coding: Performing Qualitative Data Analysis Based on Programming Principles. Qualitative Report , 26 (2).

Michalovich, A. (2021). Graduate students’ modes of engagement in computer-assisted qualitative data analysis. International Journal of Social Research Methodology , 1-14.

Purssell, E., Drey, N., Chudleigh, J., Creedon, S., & Gould, D. J. (2020). The Hawthorne effect on adherence to hand hygiene in patient care: a systematic review. Journal of Hospital Infection .

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150+ Top Sociology Research Topics

Updated 02 Dec 2022

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Participant Observation Research Paper

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Participant observation has been part of the arsenal of methodological techniques employed by social scientists since around 1900, notably within the discipline of sociology. Participant observation involves the active engagement of the researcher with the members the community that he or she wishes to study, typically as an equal member of the group.

This methodology falls under the general rubric of ﬁeld research. It is important to recognize that there exist alternative styles of ‘ﬁeld research’: a range of possibilities that this chapter will not cover. However, in contrast to the manner in which observational research has traditionally been conducted in anthropology, in sociology much ethnography is based on the assumption that the researcher is at least nominally a participant in the group being studied. Yet, the line that separates participant observation and other forms of ethnographic observation is uncertain and hazy, and for some scholars the two terms have been used as synonyms.

Since the mid-1970s there has been a notable increase in the frequency and the legitimacy of the variety of ﬁeld methodologies within the social sciences. These qualitative, interpretive strategies, once considered ‘unscientiﬁc,’ have demonstrated their utility in a number of disciplines. That this occurred during a period in which social scientiﬁc funding was being decreased is surely no coincidence. Although at the beginning of the twenty-ﬁrst century qualitative ﬁeld methods do not have the same standing as quantitative methods (especially in psychology and economics), their growth is astonishing.

1. Advantages

Several distinct advantages justify participant observation; among these are the beneﬁts of rich data, validity, Verstehen, and economy.

1.1 Richness

This methodology, in contrast to most methods that do not involve personal witnessing, provides for rich and detailed data. To investigate action, direct observation is essential. When this is coupled with the questioning of actors about their choices, tied to some measure of active involvement, the value of participant observation is evident. The form of data collection permits an intense depiction that produces a fullness of understanding.

1.2 Validity

A second beneﬁt is analytical validity. Because the observations are of behavior in situ, the researcher can rely upon the claim that the ﬁndings are close to the ‘proper’ depiction of the scene. If the conclusions drawn from participant observation research are not always reliable, in that other investigators might reach diﬀerent conclusions, they do reﬂect the belief that some aspect of the world as it ‘truly’ is, is being described.

1.3 Interpretive Understanding

Participant observation supports the demand of Max Weber to produce research that is characterized by Verstehen or a personal understanding. In this way participant observation with its emphasis on both participation and observation adds to research knowledge. By directly involving the researcher in the activity, one can understand on an immediate level the dynamics and motivations of behavior. The observer becomes other than an outsider. While research projects diﬀer signiﬁcantly on this dimension, involvement has advantages for a verstehende analysis that other approaches can not match.

1.4 Economy

Participant observation research is typically inexpensive. While this research strategy is surely laborintensive, it is not capital-intensive. In many cases the researcher is the only member of the project, and can set the terms of his or her own involvement. Increasingly, however, team-research projects exist as well, and in these cases wages and beneﬁts for hired observers may involve considerable costs. Yet, in the standard participant observation project the key resources consist of a technology for inscribing observations. Perhaps for reasons of cost, connected to the time and energy involved, participant observation has proven to be a technique most typically engaged in by scholars at the early stages of their academic careers.

2. Disadvantages

Just as there are signiﬁcant advantages to this methodology, disadvantages are evident. Problems relate to proof, generalizability, bias, and time commitments.

Participant observation relies upon a single case study: the examination of one place. This raises questions about the nature of proof, or, put another way, about reliability. Will two researchers examining the same or similar social scenes reach the same conclusions? Often because of diﬀerent perspectives upon entering the ﬁeld and diﬀerent experiences within the ﬁeld, ﬁndings are sharply distinct. While the observations and interpretations of those observations may be compelling, one can reasonably wonder whether any set of conclusions is deﬁnitive.

2.2 Generalizability

Even if we accept the legitimacy of analyzing one scene, on what grounds can we generalize beyond that setting? How far can our conclusions be pushed? Participant observation research has a problem in this regard because of the absence of scientiﬁc control that characterizes experimental research and produces conﬁdence in the claim that important variables of social life have been adequately captured. As a result, the extent to which generalizability is legitimate is problematic in participant observation. Participant observers need to present a theoretical model that helps readers to judge the legitimacy of their broader claims in light of the audience’s own experiences.

A strength of participant observation methodology is that the researcher’s insight and perspective is taken into account, but this strength has a downside. One cannot adequately distinguish between perspective and bias. The background that the researcher brings to a scene can be distinctively diﬀerent from other researchers, and, for that matter, from the perspectives of the participants in the setting. To the extent that the researcher’s perspectives diﬀer signiﬁcantly from the perspectives of the participants—possible because of the generally progressive values and upper middle class status of academics—the understanding of a particular scene may be systematically biased.

Just as participant observation research is relatively inexpensive, it is also highly labor intensive. This form of research requires that the researcher be present in the observed social scene. One cannot simply ﬂy in and out, but must spend suﬃcient time so that the full range of activities in which participants engage are noted. Much participant observation depends upon chance—what happens to occur at the moment of observation—and, as a result, a signiﬁcant investment of time is needed. While there is no deﬁnitive rule for the proper length of time necessary for observation, most projects require months, if not years, to complete. This, coupled with a modest requirement for capital equipment support means that, as noted, this methodology is particularly appropriate for younger scholars. This reality can mean that participant observation studies often do not have the depth of theoretical understanding that more likely characterizes the work of senior scholars.

3. The Growth And Development Of Participant Observation

Although participant observation methodology has deep roots in ethnographic traditions (including in traveler’s tales and missionary tales), participant observation has its origins in the discipline of sociology at the turn of the twentieth century, particularly with scholars aﬃliated with the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Notable in this early stage was the participant observation studies of Annie Marion MacLean, a student at Chicago and later professor at Adelphi University. MacLean worked and observed in department stores, sweatshops, and coalﬁelds, in order to gain an appreciation of conditions in these scenes. By the 1920s participant observation was well established in Chicago, as evidenced in studies by Frances Donovan on the lives of waitresses and Frederic Thrasher’s observations of gang life. Although members of the ‘Chicago school’ of sociology employed numerous methodological techniques, the group was probably best known for their observational research and life stories. By mid-century participant observation had expanded well beyond the bounds of Chicago. Works such as William Foote Whyte’s Street Corner Society (1943), August Hollingshead’s Elmtown’s Youth (1949), Arthur Vidich and Joseph Bensman’s Small Town in Mass Society (1958), and Herbert Gans’s The Urban Villagers (1962), collectively demonstrated that through involvement in a community, the researcher could gain a perspective that was both empirically and theoretically powerful. The fact that many of these research projects covered life in city environments led some to describe this approach as ‘urban ethnography’. Another stream of ‘participant observation’ research was grounded in the study of deviant groups and activities. Researchers in such domains have the dilemma of determining the degree to which participation should bolster their observation. Exemplifying such research are studies of the mentally ill, gang members, and drug dealers, notably the classic works by Erving Goﬀman Asylums (1961), and Elliott Liebow, Tally’s Corner (1967). These two themes —urban life and social deviance—have been integral to participant observation, and despite reduced interest in the late 1980s and early 1990s, scholars, such as Elijah Anderson, Mitchell Duneier, David Snow, and Carol Stack have returned to these themes, creating a ‘new urban ethnography’ that focuses on issues of urban poverty and racial injustice.

Not all researchers focus on ‘problem domains.’ Beginning with the inspiration of the Hawthorne studies, and later the research of Donald Roy and Melville Dalton, increasing attention has been paid to observations of work places. The participant observation of organizational life has developed rapidly, creating an active investigation of organizational domains, both in traditional social science departments and within schools of management. Factories, airlines, restaurants, and high tech engineering ﬁrms have all been the focus of research. Yet, all social worlds in which individuals with a common interest meet can be analyzed through participant observation, whether clubs, sports teams, or bars.

4. Comparison With Other Field Methods

It is easy to assert that participant observation is synonymous with qualitative research, and, in reality, the lines are blurred. However, participant observation can be contrasted with several other techniques with which it shares some commonalties. Some scholars engage in ‘ethnographic immersion.’ In such investigations, the researcher becomes a full member of the group, and, in eﬀect, studies his or her own group. This has the advantage that the researcher comes by his or her ‘member’s knowledge’ naturally, but simultaneously the immersion may diminish the ability to examine the group life from the critical perspective that being marginal sometimes brings. Most participant observation maintains a distinction between the researcher and the full member of the group studied. Typically members are told that they are being observed—an outsider, who, for purposes of the study, may participate actively in the life of the group, even though she or he is not a full member.

A second technique, related to ethnographic immersion, has been labeled ‘auto-ethnography,’ akin to the methodology of introspectionism of the early years of the twentieth century. In these studies, the researcher mines his or her life experiences, hoping to demonstrate the embodied characteristics of social forces. One such example is Carolyn Ellis’s emotional and analytical account of her own reaction to the lengthy dying of her signiﬁcant other. This writing, while occasionally powerful, insightful, and moving, can be faulted for its reliance on subjective experience. Auto-ethnography might be seen as an extreme instance of total immersion, with nothing outside the researcher’s experience; given this, such arguments become diﬃcult for others to evaluate. The author proposes a singular account of her emotions that because it is her account leaves no room for alternative interpretations.

Fourth, some researchers de-emphasize participation, and are, in practice, pure observers. Some observers make precise statistical measurements of public behaviors, but this approach is distinct from participant observation. More relevant are those scholars who examine public behavior, particularly behavior within cities. This distinguished tradition of scholarship includes such researchers as William H. Whyte, Erving Goﬀman, Lyn Loﬂand, and, more recently, Carol Brooks Gardner. A close reading of street activity, perhaps parallel to certain forms of animal ethology, permits the recognition of patterns of human activity.

Of course, within participant observation, researchers select various roles or strategies. The key dimension on which roles can be diﬀerentiated is the extent to which members are involved within group life. Adler and Adler (1987) divide participant observation methods according to the extent of participation: peripheral membership, active membership, and complete membership. In general, the peripheral member observes as an outsider to the group and its culture, the active member is directly engaged in the life of the group, while making it clear to the group that she or he does not fully belong and is conducting research. In the model of the Adlers, the complete observer essentially engages in ethnographic immersion, sometimes informing the group of the research goals.

5. Strategies Of Participant Observation

Unlike many techniques of quantitative research and statistical analysis, there are no ﬁrm and fast rules that determine how participant observation research should be conducted. Such a reality has proven frustrating to generations of students. Traditionally a novice learned the skills of participant observation through what amounted to an apprenticeship relation with a senior researcher. However, because of the increasing numbers of ﬁeld researchers, many social science departments, notably in sociology and anthropology, have instituted ﬁeld methods courses in which some rudimentary ‘rules’ and strategies of the method are taught.

Often the ﬁrst issue that must be confronted in a research project is the question of access. How does one convince a group that they should open their space to an outsider who may criticize the group? This is surely applicable to groups that are widely perceived as deviant (criminal gangs or politically marginal movements), but it also recognizes that any group, striving to maintain boundaries that diﬀerentiate it from others, may engage in some activities that members wish to keep hidden from outsiders and which could be viewed negatively. Participant observers must, within the limits of their ethical standards, convince the group that they can be trusted. Through this process they set ‘the rules of engagement.’ Such rules, explicit or implicit, diﬀer for each project. Further, this access involves an ongoing temporal process. One is rarely accepted all at once, but often the group maintains a cautious vigilance until they become satisﬁed that the researcher can be trusted. The participant observer must be sensitive to this personal equation.

5.2 Socialization

Access is only a ﬁrst step. Once the researcher gains entrance to a setting he or she must determine what behavior means. In eﬀect, the participant observer must become socialized to the environment with its norms, cultural traditions, and jargon. The ease of this process varies as a consequence of how well acquainted the researcher is with the setting prior to the observation, but unless the researcher begins as a full member, a process of acculturation must typically be mastered. At times, the group may become frustrated by the lack of competence of the observer, but more often this process of learning is valuable in methodological terms, permitting the researcher to ask questions that would be denied to others as being too obvious.

5.3 Developing Relationships

Participant observation is a methodology that depends upon the establishment of relationships. It relies upon sociability. One essential skill is the ability to recruit informants from the ﬁeld. The most important of these are termed ‘key informants,’ such as Doc in William Foote Whyte’s (1943) classic Street Corner Society. These individuals serve both a guides for the participant observer and as a means of vouching for the researcher’s legitimacy within the setting, providing an insider’s stamp of approval. The researcher who lacks the ability to make connections will have diﬃculty collecting credible research data.

5.4 Field Notes

The researcher does not only need to observe activity, but must subsequently inscribe that material in ‘ﬁeld notes,’ documents that serve as the evidentiary basis of the published report. Considerable discussion has addressed what constitutes appropriate ﬁeld notes and how these notes should be presented (Van Maanen 1988). These notes provide the ‘facts’ that are observed, including actions, statements, and the feelings of the observer. Participant observers are enjoined to write as much of what transpires as possible, particularly in the early stages of the research, when one is determining what issues are most salient. This emphasizes that participant observation is often an inductive methodology, with the ﬁeld data revealing the important issues, rather than testing pre-established hypotheses.

5.5 Exit Strategies

Much research simply ends. Once completed, the project closes down. Exiting is not as simple in participant observation because the researcher and informants have developed social ties. Leaving the ﬁeld involves the termination of a set of powerful relationships, and sometimes produces loneliness or even betrayal. As a result, the process of disengagement often involves a longer period, and some connection with the ﬁeld setting continues. Researchers are often advised—both for practical and ethical reasons—to share material with their informants, either to gain additional feedback or to permit those informants to use the analysis for their own ends. The linkages that are established during the course of the observation can be a continuing source of strength, both for researchers and for informants.

6. Ethical Concerns

Although all forms of research involving human subjects raise ethical issues, the variety of ethical concerns in participant observation are particularly great because of the degree of interpersonal dynamics involved. Four ethical issues have been central to participant observation research: deception, informed consent, conﬁdentiality, and precision of depiction. Although these do not exhaust potential ethical topics, they raise important concerns.

6.1 Deception

Most participant observers agree that it is both pragmatically and ethically necessary to announce to one’s informants that one is conducting research. In part, this is because participant observation depends on the personal relations among individuals, who, for that period of time, are status peers. To claim to be something that one is not—to pretend to be a full member of the group—without revealing one’s purpose could undermine the entire enterprise if it becomes discovered. Lies are often diﬃcult to maintain for long periods. Further, deception suggests that one’s interests take priority over the interests of another: can we justify such trickery? While research on groups that wish to keep their activities hidden— either deviant groups or, occasionally, elite groups— encourage deceptive practices, such strategies are troublesome.

6.2 Informed Consent

Deception involves the active misleading of others, but how should we view the absence of full disclosure? Do group members have the right to know that they are being investigated? For instance, one can easily join a leisure group without announcing that one is taking notes or planning to publish. Is this proper? As noted, good reasons may exist for announcing one’s presence, permitting one’s informants to serve, in eﬀect, as research assistants. But should researchers be required to gain the ‘informed consent’ of their informants; further, how much information is necessary for informed consent, particularly in a research methodology that depends on inductive methods, in which the researcher may truly not be aware of what issues will eventually become central? One’s topics depend on what one observes. During the past quarter century, American universities have instituted ‘ethics’ committees (Human Subjects Committees or Institutional Review Boards), designed to protect the ‘rights’ of research subjects. Frequently researchers are required to gain some measure of informed consent, but how much information is required remains a matter of debate.

6.3 Conﬁdentiality

One element that most (although not all) researchers agree on is that informants’ names and clearly identifying information not be included in any published research report, although some who critically examine elites feel that conﬁdentiality is not essential. In general, researchers typically believe that publishing the names or identiﬁers of particular informants or settings is neither necessary nor warranted. At times this decision poses a problem in that ﬁeld notes may describe actions or statements that can be recognized, certainly by others within the scene. As a result, participant observers must choose how much information to alter to preserve conﬁdentiality, even when this shades the full ‘facts’ of the case.

6.4 Precision Of Description

Although it is clearly desirable to present data that is precisely accurate—direct quotations and exact descriptions of behavior—participant observation methodology and the limits of human ability make these values unattainable goals (Fine 1993). In part, we are imperfect in inscribing reality, but in part we may recognize that the details of human activity may actually obscure our crucial analytical points. For instance, false starts, errors, and grammatical infelicities mark the speech of informants, like the speech of researchers themselves. Further, so much behavior is happening at any given moment that the researcher can easily become overloaded with trivial observations. The ethical balance that must be struck is to do justice to the events that are transpiring, while simultaneously making the account as clear as possible to permit communication with readers.

This brief overview has examined central features of the participant observation methodology. In doing so, it de-emphasized both the strategies of analysis (the extended case study method, grounded theory) used by practitioners and the modes of presentation (realist tales, impressionist tales). No method of data collection can exist without related techniques by which data are analyzed and presented.

Throughout the twentieth century, participant observation proved to be a powerful technique through which researchers understood a diverse set of social worlds in a way that did justice to the complexity of the activities of group members and to their own perspectives and understandings. While this methodology beneﬁts by the triangulation with other styles of research to create adequate theoretical understanding, participant observation provides the basis by which researchers can understand the richness of the social settings that they—and others—inhabit.

Bibliography:

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Primary research involves collecting data about a given subject directly from the real world. This section includes information on what primary research is, how to get started, ethics involved with primary research and different types of research you can do. It includes details about interviews, surveys, observations, and analyses.

Observations are a type of primary research that involves spending time watching people or other creatures interact with each other and the world around them. Observations are used in nearly every scientific field and can be incredibly useful in gathering information.

Types of Participation

Before observing, consider how you as an observer may alter the event being observed.

These different choices can radically change what you end up observing. The mere presence of an observer may alter the events--and if you interact with participants, you further risk changing what takes place. The other side to this is that by not participating in an event, you may not gain a complete understanding of that event.

How to Observe

When observing, it is especially important to separate observations from your feelings or reactions to observations. A good way to do this is to take your observations in a double-entry notebook. A double-entry notebook has two columns, one for what is directly observed and one is for what the observer interprets from the events. Here is an example:

Observation: The teacher walks around the circle and speaks to each student individually.

Interpretation: The teacher seems to want to make sure that each student understands the assignment.

If you are observing a group that is not found in public (such as a group of card players, a sports team, or a special-interest group), it may be wise to plan to spend multiple sittings with the group. This will allow the group some time to adjust to your presence (and hence, for you to get more accurate observations).

Recordings vs. Note-taking

How will you be observing? Will you be taking notes in a notebook? With a laptop? Will you be recording your observations in some way (with a cell phone, digital camera, video camera, digital recorder, etc.?)

How you choose to observe is another important consideration that can affect the quality and results of your observations. Remember that you cannot capture everything that takes place with a recording or even by taking detailed notes.

What to Observe

Observational skills require some practice! The key to being a good observer is to pay attention to the details of a situation, write as much as you can, and write it as detailed as possible.

Before you observe, you should consider how you will focus your observations--because you can't focus on everything!

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Observational Research

Related terms:.

Field Observational Research in Anthropology and Sociology

R. Sanjek , in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences , 2001

7 Canons of Validity

Field observational research aims to maximize validity—‘the degree to which scientific observations actually measure or record what they purport to measure’—rather than reliability—‘the repeatability, including interpersonal replicability, of scientific observations’ (Pelto and Pelto 1978 , p. 33). Reliability is valued in survey, medical, and product safety research. In ethnography, restudies to assess change may be conducted, but independent investigation of the same locale or population is unlikely or impossible.

Validity depends on the intensity and depth of field observational research, but it always remains a goal rather than a property that can be independently measured (Wolcott 1995 , pp. 167–70). A quantitative, and highly reliable, randomized sample study that investigates the gender, ethnicity, class, and other characteristics of the five best friends of members of a given population would be less valid than one in which cultural meanings and categories of friendship were first discovered through listening to natural conversations or eliciting such information in interviews. In the case of Indian immigrants in New York City, for example, the ‘five best friends’ study might miss entirely the category of rakhi ritual friendships between adult males and females which are affirmed in an annual festival where the man ties a flower bracelet on the woman's wrist.

If validity remains important, but elusive, how can it be assessed in field observational research results? Sanjek ( 1990 , pp. 393–404) proposed three canons of validity by which ethnographic writing may be evaluated. The first is theoretical candor, the openness with which the ethnographer addresses the significant theories, and even more, the local theories of significance that structured the fieldwork process. A second canon calls for explicit depiction of the ethnographer's fieldwork path—the number of informants from whom information was obtained, in what ways, and their relationship both to the wider population the field observational study concerns and to each other. A third canon concerns information about the fieldnote evidence itself: not simply ‘how much’ and its basis in listening, observing, or interviewing, but more significantly the precise relationship of notes and records to the written ethnography. Some ethnographies utilize fieldnotes directly, even masses of them; others, for rhetorical or narrative purposes, do not, and need not. What matters in the end is that readers of field observational research have a clear picture of what the ethnographer did and why, who they talked to and learned from, and what they brought back to document it.

Field observational research produces results that can be obtained in no other way. This ethnographic tradition entails that ‘the description of people's activities, their interactions with each other, [and] their verbal behavior’ be ‘copious and detailed’; ‘cumulative development … consists above all in the fact that such data, provided they are adequate, never become obsolete and can be used by analysts … in researching questions not visualized by the researchers who collected them’ (Anglin 1979 , p. 49).

Useful observational research

Brian Wansink , in Context , 2019

5.3.3 Observing and coding consumers

Pure observational research does not involve interacting with the people who are being observed, so it is exempt from Institutional Review Approval at most institutions. But being an invisible, or at least unobtrusive, observer is not easy. One way to do this is to use the “Mystery Shopper approach” and play the role of a customer or patron as you are doing the observations. In grocery stores, you can have a full cart of groceries with a coding sheet that is shaped to look like a shopping list. At an amusement park, your coding sheet can be designed to fit into a program or amusement park map; at a restaurant, your coding sheet can be designed to look like the other papers you have sitting next to you on the table ( Doering & Wansink, 2017 ). With smart phones and an online coding sheet, this can sometimes be even easier and less conspicuous.

The number of consumers that a person observes and codes depends on how long they are observed, how much they move, and on many actions they take ( Te et al., 2017 ). When using paper coding sheets, you can often track up to three people at one time. With electronic coding, accurately observing more than one person at a time can involve switching between screens, which can lead to miscoding mistakes, record write-overs, and lost files.

If people are being observed during slow periods of the day, a researcher may be able to code every consumer they see. During busy times, however, it will only be possible to code every nth person. In grocery stores at 5:00 or on weekends, only every 5th person might be tracked; whereas every 2nd one can be tracked on a Monday morning in a small store. One key is to choose the locations and types of locations that will be most relevant for your questions.

Packaging in context

Lawrence L. Garber Jr. , ... Ünal Ö. Boya , in Context , 2019

27.8 Asking questions

A drawback of observational research is that, unless it is accompanied by some sort of exit interview, it only reveals behaviors—the actions that consumers take—from which researchers can only infer the thoughts and emotions that have led to them. A serious limitation to this type of research is that visuals are treated atheoretically, as purely sensory phenomena, and the emotional and cognitive processing of visual stimuli is largely overlooked or ignored. The latter are important because effective strategy must be informed by the reasons why consumer do what they do.

To know the why of what consumers do, we can attach exit surveys to observational tools—asking questions of consumers once they have been observed. These may take traditional forms for positioning studies—asking consumers to rate a set of brands on a set of needs/benefit attributes, to rate liking and purchase intentions and so on. The purpose here would not be for brand positioning purposes, but rather to test whether exposure to certain package visuals in certain contexts affects identifiability, brand perceptions, preference, or likelihood of choice, relative to some other package visuals or in some other contexts. Interpretable results may be obtained by any number of multivariate analyses, including perceptual maps or regression analysis.

Perceptual Maps . Maps are a means of graphically displaying statistical information. They are commonly used in marketing for positioning studies, typically showing brands and attributes together as points in a joint space. The overlay of these two-point sets permits interpretation of the brands according to their relative positions, as interpreted by the attributes to which they are proximate or distant according to consumer perceptions.

A variation on such maps is shown in Fig. 27.11 , taken from Garber et al. (2000) . In this case, a set of Gold Medal flour packages whose background colors have been manipulated substitutes for a set of competitor brands. The objective here is to see if and how a change to package color affects consumers’ perceptions of the product that the package represents. The separation of the variously colored packages indicates that it does.

This kind of study can be adjusted to take into account package context by manipulating context rather than the package itself. A set of competitor brands to the target brands, which would be the marketer's own brand, could be represented in various settings. In a between-subjects design, each respondent would be exposed to the entire brand set but only to one setting. A map would be generated for each setting. Differences in brand position across maps would indicate the differential perceptual effect of viewing a package in each setting. That effect could be determined by interpreting the position of each brand in its attribute space, given its setting.

Regression Analysis . Considering the latter, to incorporate context, model specifications may be of the general form:

Y o ≡ set of outcomes variables measuring any of perception, preference choice, etc. For example, perception may be represented by the rating of each of a bundle of needs/benefit attributes that fully define products in this category; choice may be represented by liking ratings; and choice may be represented by various statements declaring purchase intention.

X i ≡ set of categorical variables representing each package's visual attributes, including color, size, shape, etc., or their combination.

X j ≡ set of categorical variables representing the context in which a package is presented, such as shelf position, # of facings, facings shape, competitor facings, lighting, etc., or their combination.

mHealth for research

Ipek Ensari PhD , Noémie Elhadad PhD , in Digital Health , 2021

2 User engagement and participatory design in mHealth research

Well-designed mHealth apps have the potential to engage patients as advocates in their personalized care, offer healthcare providers real-world assessments of their patients’ disease patterns, and better understand and gain insights into understudied diseases about which researchers and clinicians know little about. This potential can be realized if input from the chronic disease patients is collected during the design of the mHealth tool [ 29 , 30 ], specifically to assess what factors can increase the personal relevance of such a tool and how to ensure adequate usability and acceptability. This can contribute substantively to sustained user retention and engagement, which in turn enables accumulation of the necessary data to gain meaningful disease insights. As such, consideration of user engagement should start at the design stage and continue through deployment (i.e., active usage and data collection).

Defining Engagement . Although various definitions of engagement exist in the literature [ 21 ], for the purposes of this chapter, it can be conceptualized as usage of mHealth technologies in terms of temporal patterns (e.g., frequency, duration) and depth (e.g., use of specific intervention content) [ 21 ]. In other words, it is the degree of interaction a user has with the technology within a given time span or the overall length of time from the onset use of a technology to when the user totally lost interest in the usage [ 20 ]. It is a dynamic process that varies both within and across individuals; users can engage, disengage, and reengage with the mHealth technology over time [ 4 , 15 ].

Factors reported to influence engagement include those at the population level user-specific characteristics (i.e., physical, psychological, cognitive, demographic, mental health), at the user level (user expectations and personal relevance of the mHealth technology), and at the mHealth app level (e.g., app content such as its features with social support and reminders, app’s delivery mode) [ 6 , 31 ]. Given the reported low retention of usership and short-lasting engagement with mHealth technologies [ 4 , 32 ], leveraging what is known about these factors and when to use them can help target the right ones during the design stage, therefore increasing likelihood of sustained engagement.

One limitation in the existing literature investigating the link between engagement and mHealth app design, however, is its reliance on interventions (e.g., behavioral change interventions) (e.g. Refs. [ 2 , 13–15 ]). There are no guidelines on design of mHealth apps where the goal is to gain insights about the disease population , instead of “intervene” on an individual’s behavior. Particularly for conditions that are not well understood, a critical question is how to design such tools when it is unclear which data types are relevant to the disease. Because the successful use of an mHealth app requires an ability to understand and utilize personal health data, user experience should account for individual differences in numeracy skills and apply evidence-based behavioral science principles to promote continued engagement [ 33 ]. These collectively underscore the value of a patient-centered, participatory design approach in the context of observational research mHealth apps.

Stages of Participatory Design . Participatory design is a multistage, multimethod process [ 23 , 30 , 34 ], ideally guided through questions that the research team has set prior to beginning their research process (see Table 5.1 ). Typically, as a first step, individual interviews and/or focus groups are conducted to gain an understanding of the needs, goals, and preferences of the target demographic. This qualitative phase can be supplemented with quantitative data collection approaches (e.g., surveys and questionnaires) to gain a comprehensive profile of the target user group. The design and the content of the mHealth tool are informed by the triangulation of data collected through these stages and in an iterative manner tested with groups of participants. This iteration phase includes usability, acceptability, and learnability assessments, conducted at multiple stages as needed during the design process. Importance of this iterative stage is underscored by the significant association of these three factors to research mHealth tool user retention and engagement [ 30 , 32 ].

Table 5.1 . Guiding questions for conducting research to develop observational research app.

From a quantitative approach, there is a variety of models and validated questionnaires for assessing these components, including the Health IT Usability Evaluation Model (Health-ITUEM) [ 35 ], Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the customizable Health IT Usability Scale (Health-ITUES) [ 36 ] that was developed based on the framework, IBM Computer System Usability Questionnaire [ 37 ], System Usability Scale [ 38 ], End-User Computing Satisfaction [ 39 ], and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) [ 40 ]. Information gained through the structured questionnaires can further be supplemented with qualitative assessment of user perceptions of the design through focus groups and individual interviews.

In sum, this multistage data triangulation process helps circumvent limitations of digitization of chronic diseases identified in the literature, including lack of consumer appeal or clinical relevance, low added value, missing services for comorbidities, and demographic and behavioral characteristics of patient populations [ 2 ]. As such, it is recommended that these potential issues are considered as early as possible in the app design process.

2.1 Case study: participatory design of Phendo

Phendo is an observational research smartphone app available for iOS and Android, and was developed for people with endometriosis to self-track symptoms, treatments, and self-management strategies associated with their disease [ 11 , 23 ]. The app enables participants to review and sign an electronic consent to participate to the Citizen Endo research. In terms of self-tracking features within Phendo, participants can track the location, intensity, and type of their endometriosis pain across 39 specific body locations, gastrointestinal and genitourinary issues, other symptoms (e.g., “blurry vision” “hot flashes” “fatigue”), and their severity, mood, bleeding, and medication intake. Users can track a functional assessment of their day (“How was your day?”), menstruation patterns, and a daily journal. All aspects of Phendo were designed based on a series of quantitative and qualitative exploratory research conducted with women living with endometriosis [ 11 ], using a multistep data triangulation process described above. The goal of the research team was to create a patient-centered tool that engages the user as an active participant in the research on better understanding endometriosis . Further details of each of these steps are provided in Ref. [ 23 ] and we summarize the guiding questions that informed each step as a guiding checklist for the reader (see Table 5.1 ). Below, we describe some of the key learnings gained at each step.

Initially, the research team conducted a round of individual interviews with three women with endometriosis to collect information on personal history of the disease for each woman, their symptoms, and the burden of disease on their everyday lives. This was followed by a series of five focus groups held with women (N = 27, age ranging between 27 and 60 years) with endometriosis to (1) explore their attitudes and motivations about self-tracking their experience of the disease and (2) determine the feasibility of self-tracking endometriosis. The results from these focus groups revealed several important points, which informed the subsequent stages of the Phendo project. First, we discovered that women living with endometriosis were eager to self-track as a form of participatory research activity and that they believed their input could help clinicians and researchers better understand this disease [ 11 ]. Next, these interviews and focus groups identified aspects of the disease they were willing and thought of as important to track (i.e., prioritized disease aspects) [ 23 ].

Based on the findings from the focus groups, the research team developed questionnaires focusing on disease variables discussed during these sessions , including emotions, moods, and affects; pain locations and descriptions; medication use; and self-management, strategies, comorbidities, dietary, and exercise habits. Importantly, participants were informed of the explicit goal of designing a self-tracking tool (i.e., participatory design). Finally, to further explore the dimensions identified during the prior stages without interference from the potential biases of the researchers, a content analysis of an online health community (i.e., the endometriosis board, “r/endo,” of the social platform Reddit) was conducted. This content analysis provided confirmation of the disease aspects identified in the focus groups and online surveys [ 23 ]. This approach further enables capturing of shared, real-life experiences of individuals with the disease and can be helpful in instances where not much is known about the disease.

Included within the Phendo app user tab, in addition to researcher-derived items, Phendo participants can take a standardized questionnaire designed by the World Endometriosis Research Foundation [ 26 ] Endometriosis Phenome and Biobanking Harmonisation Project (WERF-EPHect) [ 41 ]. The questionnaire represents the gold standard for clinical characterization of endometriosis. It contains information about medical and surgical history, as well as quality of life-related questions. Outside of endometriosis, other examples of standardized, validated measures that can be used across a multitude of conditions are the patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and the patient-reported experience measures (PREMs). A PRO is directly reported by the patient without interpretation of the patient’s response by a clinician or anyone else, and pertains to the patient’s health, quality of life, or functional status associated with healthcare or treatment [ 42 ]. Similarly, PREM is defined as a measure of a patient’s perception of their personal experience of the healthcare they have received [ 43 ]. In the context of observational mHealth research, inclusion of standardized measures allows for combining self-tracked mobile data with those from gold standard measures for comprehensive profiling of the disease, and gain further understanding of lesser-known disease aspects (see below in Section 5 ).

In-home testing

Elizabeth H. Zandstra , René Lion , in Context , 2019

4.1.1.3 Groundwork for quantitative studies

Two other reasons for conducting qualitative observational research is to (1) gain technical data to set up relevant (laboratory) evaluation measurement techniques, and (2) to obtain information on how a new product might be used at home in real life, including both positive and negative aspects, so that a quantitative assessment measures the appropriate steps, actions, benefits and so forth. Thus, exploratory qualitative observational consumer research helps identify which questions to ask and which steps to measure. Without a good insight into these behaviors, a quantitative study runs the risk of asking irrelevant or incomprehensible questions. The results of qualitative research are potential drivers of brand choice and product performance (both observed and consumer perceived), consumer language describing the sensory experience of a product used at home, consumer-stated motivations for choice of food products or brands, and consumers’ perceptions of constraints, problems, needs, likes, and dislikes.

Field Visits

Elizabeth Goodman , ... Andrea Moed , in Observing the User Experience (Second Edition) , 2012

“You Can’t Generalize from This!”

It’s also true that time and budget constraints will mean that observational research will only include a limited sample. Typically, field visits include multiple sites to look for shared patterns, and researchers ask about typical and atypical events in order to check that what they are seeing is typical. But the real question is, how far does the research need to generalize? Often, Jordan and Dalal point out, the research doesn’t need to generalize very far. For example, does this work need to apply to all call centers? Or just call centers for this one industry? Or just for this one company?

Starting Your Research

Thomas W. Edgar , David O. Manz , in Research Methods for Cyber Security , 2017

Observation Method Selection

As we discussed before, there are a few different research methods to perform observational research . Traditional exploratory observational studies leverage statistical methods to help collect data and to analyze the data to infer causal relationships between variables. Descriptive studies are good for studying specific instances of a system in operation. Finally, machine learning is useful when you have access to a lot of data and want to automate a model for prediction or hypothesis generation without fully understanding the causal inferences. Let us discuss some general issues that will help you in deciding the appropriate method.

If you already have a dataset, do you want to create a model to generate predictions or do you want to try to discover and understand causalities? Machine learning techniques are generally better at taking data and automatically or semiautomatically generating a model that can then provide predictions about future behavior. However, it is not always clear which salient data features caused the model to generate certain predictions. Traditional observational studies, on the other hand, use statistical methods to try to discover relationships between variables and infer causalities. With observational studies you might get strong beliefs about some variables, but not have a complete system model of behavior.

If you do not have data, then you need to evaluate your research from the scale of the system and the amount of resources you have available to collect a dataset. The major difference from observational studies and descriptive studies is that an observational study attempts to observe a full system, or many instances of a system, and descriptive studies examine in depth a specific case of a system or a subset of a system. If you have the capability to collect data from the complete system, or from all classes of that system, then performing an observational study will be the best approach. If the system you want to study is large, you do not have the capability and/or resources to collect data, maybe finding a subset of that system and doing a descriptive study would be a better fit ( Fig. 3.4 ).

Figure 3.4 . Cyber Security Theoretical Research Method Decision Tree.

The Logic and Philosophy of Causal Inference

Sander Greenland , in Philosophy of Statistics , 2011

The above models can be extended to deal with another major source of bias in observational research , measurement error. Because the topic is quite involved and brings in many elements not related to causality, it has not been included here. Notably however, measurement error expands the nonidentification problem to noncausal associations, thus further weakening identification of causal effects from observed associations; see [ Greenland, 2005a; 2009; 2010 ] for examples and discussion.

The above models also extend to consideration of longitudinal (time-varying) treatments such as medical regimens, but again many technical elements arise in applications [ Robins, 1999ab ]. For a discussion of relations of the models to the sufficient-component cause model common in epidemiology (which is equivalent to the INUS model of [ Mackie, 1965 ]) see [ Greenland and Brumback, 2002; VanderWeele and Robins, 2008 ].

As may be apparent from the above presentation, statistical and structural representations of causation bypass most of the philosophic subtleties associated with the complex topic of cause and effect. This bypass has facilitated applications and may reflect the task-oriented attitude of most scientists. Nonetheless, it should not lead one to overlook some serious practical problems that are usually ignored.

Perhaps the largest problem is the possible ambiguity in what it means to intervene on a variable or to “change” its level. This ambiguity can render ambiguous the concept of a potential-outcome vector Y for X . After all, if Y x is a counterfactual component of Y (as all but one component must be), its value may depend in a dramatic fashion on exactly how X would come to be x if x is counterfactual [ Greenland, 2005b; Hernán, 2005 ]. In causal diagrams the same problem is utterly invisible. These are not fatal objections to the models, for the models have proven useful whenever the meaning of interventions and outcomes is unambiguous (for example when X is measles vaccination and Y is the subsequent occurrence of measles). But they are quite disconcerting when the models are used to make claims about the impact of (for example) “eradication of childhood disease”: The effect of such an ambiguous action depends dramatically on exactly how it is carried out (e.g., by vaccinating, by curing, or by killing children).

Regardless of any objections and problems, the statistics and observational science literature employing potential-outcome models has exploded over the past few decades, while causal diagrams have spread rapidly in the wake. It thus seems important that those interested in issues of causality become familiar with these formal yet practical tools for causal inference.

Applied Observational Study

Reporting your results.

The final important step of an applied observational study is reporting your results. This is, however, another area where the process for applied observational research might differ from foundational observational research. Specifically, contract research is conducted on the behest of the sponsor organization, unlike grant-funded research, which is conducted in the public interest. Not to complicate things, any government might use a contract to fund research in the public interest, but it is important to realize the distinction. Any research should have a broad understanding of how their research is being paid for and what expectations are placed upon the researchers.

Dig Deeper: Researcher Expectations

Legally the responsibility and expectations on the researcher can vary substantially depending on the funding contract. A classic example of this is a government grant versus a government contract agreement. A contract is legally binding agreement to fund a list of promises. A grant is a federal vehicle to create or transfer a thing of value to the public good. http://science.energy.gov/grants/about/grants-contracts-differences/

For example, a commercial grant might specifically exclude publication, or publications or certain types of content. Typically, limitations on research dissemination can become quite contentious in academic or other research institutions. Contracts, can and will, be enforced by law. However, regardless of peer review publication or not, everyone will expect a researcher to document their results thoroughly. It is possible to publish a stress test, applied case report, or study in a conference, or perhaps a journal, but alternatives include: letters, technical reports, public announcements, or other alternatives that can be used to disseminate the information. These methods, while often not be peer-reviewed, are often appropriate for the subject matter and ensure that the community gains access to the material. Technical reports, especially are often used by commercial or nonprofit research institutions that does not have as much of an emphasis on peer-reviewed publications like academia does. It bears repeating that, peer review does provide a validation check against the topic of research, methods of research, and the quality of reporting the research to ensure that a certain level of quality is maintained. In this section, we provide a general template for reporting applied observational studies, and point out where changes might need to be made.

Sample Format

In the following, we will provide you with a general outline for publishing your results. Every publication will provide their own formatting guidelines. Be sure to check your selected venue’s submission requirements to make sure you follow any outline and formatting specifications. The outline provided here follows a common flow of information found in published papers and should meet the requirements of a larger number of publisher specifications.

Every paper is unique and requires some different ways of presentation; however, the provided sample flow includes all of the general information that is important to cover in a paper and is a general starting format we take when starting to write a paper and then modify it to support the topic and venue. We understand that every researcher has their own style of presentation, so feel free to use this as a jumping-off point. The discussions of each section are provided to explain what is important to include and why, so you can present the important information in whatever way best suits your style.

This title section should be self-explanatory. Provide sufficient information to help audience determine if they should read more. Some authors enjoy clever or amusing titles, your mileage may vary. You should indicate what type of study you conducted and note that it is applied research. See the examples of, “Stress test the power consumption impact of a new secure ad-hoc communications protocol for first responders,” and “An applied study on the effectiveness of a new secure ad-hoc communications protocol for first responders” for unexciting samples. But, note the tile covers the type of research, the purpose, and the subject, briefly.

The abstract is a concise and clear summary of the paper. The goal of an abstract is to provide readers with a quick description of what the paper discusses. You should only talk about what is stated in the rest of the paper and nothing additional. Each submission venue will provide guidelines on how to provide an abstract. Generally, this includes the maximum length of the abstract and formatting instructions, but sometimes this will include information on the type and layout of the content to provide.

Introduction

The first section of a paper should always be an introduction for the reader into the rest of the paper. The introduction section provides the motivation and reasoning behind why the research was performed. This should include a statement of the research question and any motivating questions that were used for the research. If any background information is required, such as explaining the domain, environment, or context of the research, you would discuss it here. If the audience is significantly removed from some aspect of this topic, it may be worth it to create an independent background section.

Study Methods

The study methodology section of your paper should clearly define the process you took to conduct your study. It is crucial that this section is clear and complete, such that a reader would be able to replicate it. In this section, you should detail the specific observational methods (exploratory or descriptive), the setting/environment, and the size of the study. Additionally, the participants/subjects should be detailed. The variables under observation should be described including outcomes, quantitative values, and any confounding factors. Next, the biases should be acknowledged and also address how they were controlled and mitigated. Finally, you should define the statistics you used and the motivation for using them; you can also address if you have any missing data and how you dealt with that. If you conduct an interview, or survey, the means of developing the questions, and sample questions can be included here as well.

In the stress test example, this methods section would include the system description, the behavior being observed, and the testing methodology . And in the applied study example, this methods section would include information about the purpose , the subject , the means of intervention , and the process (unless the subject was covered in the related works section).

Study Results

In the results section of your paper, explain what you found after you performed your analysis. Lay out the significance, confidence intervals, and effect sizes for all of the study. Creating tables to show results is usually an efficient and effective method. You should address the participants in the study. Also, you could show pictures of interesting results; that is, if a data anomaly occurred, or to display the distributions of the data samples. This should include descriptive data (the inputs) and outcome data (the outputs), and the analysis. If anything unexpected occurred, and shows up in the data, explain it in this section.

Discussion/Future Work

The discussion/future work section is for highlighting key results and results you found interesting or noteworthy. You should mention any limitations about which the reader should know. You can interpret and discuss any important correlations and discuss generalizability and causal relationships as relevant. Discuss where you think this work should lead next.

Conclusion/Summary

In the final section of the paper, summarize the results and conclusions of the paper. The conclusion section is often a place readers jump to quickly after reading the abstract. Make a clear and concise statement about what the ultimate results of the study were and what you learned from them. Be frank about the success and failures.

Acknowledgments

The acknowledgments section is a place for you to acknowledge anyone who helped you with parts of the research. This is also a good place to acknowledge funding sources that supported your research. As this is applied research, you might have requirements for acknowledgments. Be sure to include those as well.

Each publication will provide some guidelines on how to format references. Follow their guidelines and list all your references at the end of your paper. Depending on the length of the paper, you will want to adjust the number of references. Usually, the longer the paper, the more references. A good rule of thumb is 15–20 references for a 6-page paper. Applied research might have less than this, technical reports somes do. However, completeness and thoroughness are always something to strive for, and peer-review quality is fine, even if the document will never be publically released. For peer-reviewed publications, the majority of your references should be other peer-reviewed works. Referencing web pages and Wikipedia doesn’t generate confidence in reviewers. Also, make sure you only list references that are relevant to your paper, that is don’t inflate your reference count. Good reviewers will check references and this will likely reflect poorly on you and disqualify you.

Grounded Theory: Methodology and Theory Construction

K. Charmaz , in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences , 2001

1 The Intellectual Heritage of Grounded Theory

Grounded theory derives from the intellectual traditions of each of its founders. Strauss brought Chicago School pragmatism, symbolic interactionism, and field research to grounded theory (see also Symbolic Interaction: Methodology ; Field Observational Research in Anthropology and Sociology ). Hence, grounded theorists study processes in natural settings and invoke pragmatic criteria of usefulness to evaluate the completed study. Grounded theory methods themselves echo pragmatist and symbolic interactionist assumptions of social life as emergent and open-ended, and answer Herbert Blumer's ( 1969 ) call to study social action in natural settings. Glaser's training in survey research at Columbia University lent grounded theory its systematic approach, positivist proclivities, and procedural language. Glaser codified steps of analysis of qualitative data in an analogous way as quantitative research had been codified. His efforts culminated in an explicit statement of how to handle data analysis (Glaser 1978 , Glaser and Strauss 1967 ). Glaser's approach assumed a knowable world waiting to be discovered, unbiased observers who are uninfluenced by preconceived logico-deductive theories of this world or by prior research about it, and a view of grounded theory categories as arising from the data. As a result of its divergent origins, grounded theory contains elements of both positivism and constructivism.

Glaser and Strauss developed grounded theory methods at a time when quantification had gained hegemony throughout the social sciences. Theory and research had become separate pursuits. The quest for quantified research findings resulted in the waning of qualitative studies. Except for an occasional classic study, most quantitative methodologists ignored qualitative research and relegated it to disciplinary sidelines, or treated it only as a precursor to rigorous quantitative research. Qualitative research was deemed impressionistic and anecdotal, unfitting the scientific quest for quantified facts. In contrast, Glaser and Strauss ( 1967 ) argued that qualitative research could stand as science in its own right, demonstrate rigor, and generate theory.

Glaser and Strauss's arguments found receptive audiences. Their methods appealed to social scientists who wished to conduct qualitative research but lacked tools for doing it. In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, grounded theory methodological rationales contributed significantly to re-establishing the legitimacy of qualitative research. This method provided researchers with ready justifications for conducting qualitative studies and strong rationales that their research inquiry was systematic. Not surprisingly, diverse qualitative researchers still claim to use grounded theory to establish their credibility and the legitimacy of their research enterprise. However, their claims of using grounded theory may rest on having conducted some form of qualitative research or on only following the initial steps of the grounded theory method.

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What Is an Observational Study?
Step 1: Identify your research topic and objectives The first step is to determine what you're interested in observing and why. Observational studies are a great fit if you are unable to do an experiment for practical or ethical reasons, or if your research topic hinges on natural behaviors. Example: Observational study topic
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115 Observation Essay Topics: Ideas To Get You Started 0 Assignments on observation essays look cheap on the surface, but tough tendons and hard bones to crack always lie beneath. Most students will therefore write such papers and score low grades easily.
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To make your task easier, our experts have compiled a list of observation essay topics. Here are examples of interesting topics that you can use for your observation: How does caffeine affect your reaction? How does religion help to deal with problems? What are the "cures" for stress? Why are sweets bad for children's behavior?
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List of Topic Examples for an Observation Essay To show the ability to be observant, the student needs to pick a good topic. You are supposed to have a point of view relevant to the subject you have selected, be it scenarios, pets, places, or trips. However, below are some examples of observation topics you may find helpful:
Observation Research Paper
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Field Observation. Words: 641. Length: 2 Pages. Document Type: Research Paper. Paper #: 5454824. Read Full Paper . Skateboard park, urban center. Date and time of your observations: Saturday, 4PM. Why you chose the setting: The setting is close by, but it still offers insight into a subset of youth culture in the city.
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Top observation essay topics As we promised you at the very beginning of this paper, we propose you our variants of 15 observation essay topics to choose from: Thoughts about tattoo and body piercing. Is it important to be tolerant? Difference between independence and freedom. What does money mean in the modern society?
Observation Essay Examples
Observation of a Nine-Month Old Infant, Susie Stranger anxiety is a common expression of fear to unfamiliar adults in infants six months to two years old (Berk, 2013). In this paper, I will discuss my experience in holding and observing an infant who is unfamiliar with strangers along with my expectations and assumptions of my experience with ...
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The following sample essay on Classroom Observation Essay discusses it in detail, offering basic facts and pros and cons associated with it. To read the essay's introduction, body and conclusion, scroll down.6th of December 2010 - in the recent classroom observation on the ZC11, a block section for first year Information Technology students taking up Study and Thinking Skills class of Dr ...
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Courtroom Observation Essay: a Civil Case. 1352 words | 3 Pages. In February, specifically on the 14th of February, I had the opportunity and privilege to observe a civil case. This case took place in Newark, NJ, at the Superior Court. The judge presiding over this case was Judge Jose L. Linares.
Naturalistic Observation
Naturalistic Observation | Definition, Guide, & Examples. Published on February 10, 2022 by Pritha Bhandari.Revised on December 2, 2022. Naturalistic observation is a qualitative research method where you record the behaviors of your research subjects in real world settings. You avoid interfering with or influencing any variables in a naturalistic observation.
Observational Research
Observational studies can be used to study a variety of topics, including health, social behavior, and environmental issues. Observation What is Observational? Observation is the act of looking at and analyzing the world around you. It can be done through either your eyes or your mind.
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Recording of the field operations is a critical step when using field observation as a method of collecting data. A proper record of the observed traits would help eliminate instances of the researcher forgetting the actions in precision. The most significant risk, in this case, is bias and credibility issues.
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Question: What do you think of the following current events research paper topic question: "Is the International Space Station a good way to bridge differences between nations, or is it vulnerable to become a political tool"? Answer: That is a good topic question. Here are a couple of others: 1.
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Sociology Research Paper Topics for College Students. Sociology Research Topics on Family. Sociology of Nationality and Race. Sociology Research Topics on Human Rights. Sociology of Social Media. Sociology Research Topics Interpersonal Communication. Sociology Research Topics on Stereotypes. Sociology of Gender. Sociology of Youth Culture.
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Case study observational research offers a promising approach for researchers in a wide range of health care settings seeking more complete understandings of complex topics, where contextual influences are of primary concern. Future research is needed to refine and evaluate the approach.
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Observing
A double-entry notebook has two columns, one for what is directly observed and one is for what the observer interprets from the events. Here is an example: Observation: The teacher walks around the circle and speaks to each student individually. Interpretation: The teacher seems to want to make sure that each student understands the assignment.
Observational Research
7 Canons of Validity. Field observational research aims to maximize validity—'the degree to which scientific observations actually measure or record what they purport to measure'—rather than reliability—'the repeatability, including interpersonal replicability, of scientific observations' (Pelto and Pelto 1978, p. 33).