Participant observation studies have little value in sociological research because they are too subjective. Explain and assess this claim
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alharithharrathbzamalshah (student)
“Participant observation studies have little value in sociological research because they are too subjective.” Explain and assess this claim. 18/25 72% C
The view above is supported by the positivist. They argued that sociologist should not be concerned with the internal meanings, motives, feelings and emotions of individuals which are the aspects looked from a participant observations method. Since these mental states exist only in the person’s consciousness, they cannot be observed and they cannot be measured in any objective ways. This shows that positivist supports the view above and provides a more suitable method for sociological research, quantitative method. According to Auguste Comte, scientific study of the society should be done by collecting information about phenomena that can be objectively observed and classified. By data, patterns can be found thus lead to explanation for sociological understanding. That is why they prefer the quantitative research method such as the questionnaires since it can covers wide group of society in short space of time and prevents researcher’s bias. Hence, their method has high objectivity and high representativeness rather than compared to qualitative method. This is evidence in Emile Durkheim in his suicide study by using the quantitative methods. He conducted a study on suicide in European countries and he recorded them in a form of statistics. Some of the results he found are suicide rates were higher in predominantly Protestant countries than in Catholic ones and married people were more prone to suicide than those who were single. Hence we can see that through the use of quantitative methods, we can obtain useful information with high objectivity, reliability and representativeness. However being too objective in their methods, positivists are greatly criticized for the validity of their data. This is exhibited by critics on Durkheim’s study by Steve Taylor with the view that suicide statistics cannot be taken at face value. In his study ‘Persons under trains’ of person who met their death hit by tube trains on London Underground, he found that over 12 month period, they were 32 cases with no strong clues as to reason for the death. It is impossible to say whether a suicide had taken place or not. 17 cases resulted in suicide verdict, 5 were classified as accidental deaths and remaining 10 produced open verdicts. Thus we can see that the methods used by quantitative research methods are questionable because of being too objective in their study to produce useful information with high validity. Questionable because the statistics are not as objective as claimed. This will also make the quantitative method have less value. Close the paragraph with correct link to question.
