Participant observation is one type (see:interviewing in the qualitative paradigm and field research) of data collection method typically done in the qualitative research paradigm. It is a widely used methodology in many disciplines, particularly cultural anthropology, but also sociology, communication studies, and social psychology. Its aim is to gain a close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals (such as a religious, occupational, sub cultural group, or a particular community) and their practices through an intensive involvement with people in their cultural environment, usually over an extended period of time. The method originated in the field research of social anthropologists, especially the students of Franz Boas in the United States, and in the urban research of the Chicago School of sociology.
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Famous quotes containing the word observation:
“Men look on knowledge which they learn—or might learn—from others as they do on the most beautiful structures which are not their own: in outward objects, they would rather behold their own hogsty than their neighbor’s palace; and in mental ones, would prefer one grain of knowledge gained by their own observation to all the wisdom of a thousand Solomons.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)