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Nonparticipant Observation
Nonparticipant observation is a data collection method used extensively in case study research in which the researcher enters a social system to observe events, activities, and interactions with the aim of gaining a direct understanding of a phenomenon in its natural context. As a nonparticipant, the observer does not participate directly in the activities being observed.
Concept Overview and Discussion
Nonparticipant observation has a long history in the social and behavioral sciences. It is distinguished from participant observation by the observer's level and kind of involvement in the research setting, the nonparticipant observer adopting a more distant and separate role. At its most extreme, the nonparticipant observer has no contact whatsoever with the researched, but watches and records events through one-way mirrors or with cameras.
Nonparticipant observation may be overt or covert. When overt, participants understand that the observer is there for research purposes: The observer is present during organizational activities and has a role clearly distinct from that of organizational members. When observation is covert—either by hidden cameras or by an observer pretending not to be studying the setting—participants are unaware that they are being studied.
Because observation involves physically entering into the world of the researched, spending much time around them, and often being privy to quite sensitive issues, a critical first step is building trust and developing empathy with participants. This is especially important for those who at first might be wary of being researched. Developing strong relationships with participants not only increases the level of access that can be attained, but also deepens the insights gained into their world. At the same time, it holds the danger of the observer “going native,” which happens when he or she overidentifies with those he or she studies.
The observation process is a three-stage funnel, according to James Spradley, beginning with descriptive observation, in which researchers carry out broad scope observation to get an overview of the setting, moving to focused observation, in which they start to pay attention to a narrower portion of the activities that most interest them, and then selected observation, in which they investigate relations among the elements they have selected as being of greatest interest. Observation should end when theoretical saturation is reached, which occurs when further observations begin to add little or nothing to researchers' understanding. This usually takes a period of days or months, but, depending on the phenomenon in question, sometimes several years.
Key to good nonparticipant observation is the taking of detailed field notes to record what has been observed. Researchers may also use audio or video recorders or cameras to capture activities in the setting, technologies that, as they become smaller and less expensive, are becoming more common in case study research. This way of capturing the raw data can be of great value, not only securing incidents or exchanges that might have been missed or forgotten, but also allowing the researcher and others to revisit a faithful record of the data long after the field work is finished.
Application
While rarely used alone as a data collection technique, nonparticipant observation is often combined with other methods, such as interviews, document analysis, and surveys. As such, it has been an important part of several classic case studies. For example, in his study of how technologies change organizational and occupational structures, Stephen Barley spent one year as a nonparticipant observer in the radiology departments of two hospitals, observing the daily routines of radiologists and technologists. This allowed him to gain an intimate understanding of their actions and their underlying meanings that would have been hard to grasp without having an ongoing presence in the settings. Similarly, Karen Jehn used nonparticipant observation in her multiple case study of group conflict. By observing group members' behavioral reactions at different times throughout the workday, she was able to identify two different types of conflict, as well as evidence of a dynamic shift that occurred between them. Not only did nonparticipant observation allow her to study, in depth, a sensitive phenomenon that participants might have been reluctant to talk about in interviews, but it also provided a nuanced and dynamic appreciation of group conflict that would have been very difficult to identify through survey or other more distant methods.
Critical Summary
Nonparticipant observation has several strengths. First, it provides unique, contextualized insights into events and activities and the meanings that they hold for members of the setting. Second, it enables the researcher to capture the dynamics of participants' interactions with each another and with their work environment, and to do so over time, observing processes as they unfold. Third, it provides a different kind and quality of data than those gathered through self-report methods, such as surveys or interviews. Indeed, it may offer the only viable way to collect data on especially sensitive topics.
At the same time, nonparticipant observation raises several challenges. One is the observer effect, with its danger of causing reactivity in those under study. Although this effect usually diminishes over time during the observation period, it remains an inherent risk. Second is a concern about the observer's ability to be objective, and to produce an analysis of the setting that is not dominated by his or her values and interpretations. While, as in any study, researcher values and beliefs are an inherent part of the research process, observers can increase the trustworthiness of their data through the use of rigorous and systematic approaches to sampling, field notes, and data analysis. Third is the problem of selectivity: An observation can never be truly complete in the events, activities, people, or interactions studied, or in the time period covered. To address this issue, researchers observe the phenomenon in as wide a range of circumstances as possible, and spend a long time in the field. Fourth are ethical concerns about the greater authority accorded to the researcher's voice than to those of participants in describing and explaining what is going on in the setting. In recognition of this, researchers increasingly draw on both insider (participant) and outsider (researcher) accounts to develop a collaborative portrait of the phenomenon under study.
Further Readings
- Case Study Research in Anthropology
- Before-and-After Case Study Design
- Agency
- Abduction
- Action-Based Data Collection
- Activity Theory
- Case Study and Theoretical Science
- Analytic Generalization
- ANTi-History
- Case Study Research in Business and Management
- Blended Research Design
- Alienation
- Bayesian Inference and Boolean Logic
- Analysis of Visual Data
- Actor-Network Theory
- Chicago School
- Audience
- Case Study as a Teaching Tool
- Case Study Research in Business Ethics
- Bounding the Case
- Authenticity and Bad Faith
- Bricoleur
- Anonymity and Confidentiality
- ANTi-History
- Colonialism
- Authenticity
- Case Study in Creativity Research
- Case Study Research in Education
- Case Selection
- Author Intentionality
- Case-to-Case Synthesis
- Anonymizing Data for Secondary Use
- Autoethnography
- Constructivism
- Concatenated Theory
- Case Study Research in Tourism
- Case Study Research in Feminism
- Case-to-Case Synthesis
- Case Study and Theoretical Science
- Causal Case Study: Explanatory Theories
- Archival Records as Evidence
- Base and Superstructure
- Critical Realism
- Conceptual Argument
- Case Study With the Elderly
- Case Study Research in Medicine
- Case Within a Case
- Contentious Issues in Case Study Research
- Chronological Order
- Audiovisual Recording
- Case Study as a Methodological Approach
- Critical Theory
- Conceptual Model: Causal Model
- Collective Case Study
- Case Study Research in Political Science
- Comparative Case Study
- Cultural Sensitivity and Case Study
- Coding: Axial Coding
- Autobiography
- Character
- Dialectical Materialism
- Conceptual Model: Operationalization
- Configurative-Ideographic Case Study
- Case Study Research in Psychology
- Critical Incident Case Study
- Dissertation Proposal
- Coding: Open Coding
- Case Study Database
- Class Analysis
- Epistemology
- Conceptual Model in a Qualitative Research Project
- Critical Pedagogy and Digital Technology
- Case Study Research in Public Policy
- Cross-Sectional Design
- Ecological Perspectives
- Coding: Selective Coding
- Case Study Protocol
- Closure
- Existentialism
- Conceptual Model in a Quantitative Research Project
- Diagnostic Case Study Research
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Ideology
- Cognitive Biases
- Case Study Surveys
- Codifying Social Practices
- Families
- Contribution, Theoretical
- Explanatory Case Study
- Case Study Research in Tourism
- Deductive-Nomological Model of Explanation
- Masculinity and Femininity
- Cognitive Mapping
- Consent, Obtaining Participant
- Communicative Action
- Formative Context
- Credibility
- Exploratory Case Study
- Case Study With the Elderly
- Deviant Case Analysis
- Objectivism
- Communicative Framing Analysis
- Contextualization
- Community of Practice
- Frame Analysis
- Docile Bodies
- Inductivism
- Ecological Perspectives
- Discursive Frame
- Othering
- Complexity
- Critical Pedagogy and Digital Technology
- Comparing the Case Study With Other Methodologies
- Historical Materialism
- Equifinality
- Institutional Ethnography
- Healthcare Practice Guidelines
- Dissertation Proposal
- Patriarchy
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: ATLAS.ti
- Cultural Sensitivity and Case Study
- Consciousness Raising
- Interpretivism
- Experience
- Instrumental Case Study
- Pedagogy and Case Study
- Ethics
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: CAITA (Computer-Assisted Interpretive Textual Analysis)
- Data Resources
- Contradiction
- Liberal Feminism
- Explanation Building
- Intercultural Performance
- Event-Driven Research
- Power
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: Kwalitan
- Depth of Data
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Managerialism
- Extension of Theory
- Intrinsic Case Study
- Exemplary Case Design
- Power/Knowledge
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: MAXQDA 2007
- Diaries and Journals
- Critical Sensemaking
- Modernity
- Falsification
- Limited-Depth Case Study
- Extended Case Method
- Pragmatism
- Computer-Based Analysis of Qualitative Data: NVIVO
- Direct Observation as Evidence
- Dasein
- North American Case Research Association
- Functionalism
- Multimedia Case Studies
- Extreme Cases
- Researcher as Research Tool
- Concept Mapping
- Discourse Analysis
- Decentering Texts
- Ontology
- Generalizability
- Participatory Action Research
- Healthcare Practice Guidelines
- Terroir
- Congruence Analysis
- Documentation as Evidence
- Deconstruction
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Genericization
- Participatory Case Study
- Holistic Designs
- Utilitarianism
- Constant Causal Effects Assumption
- Ethnostatistics
- Dialogic Inquiry
- Philosophy of Science
- Indeterminacy
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Hypothesis
- Verstehen
- Content Analysis
- Fiction Analysis
- Discourse Ethics
- Pluralism and Case Study
- Indexicality
- Pracademics
- Integrating Independent Case Studies
- Conversation Analysis
- Field Notes
- Double Hermeneutic
- Postcolonialism
- Instrumental Case Study
- Processual Case Research
- Juncture
- Cross-Case Synthesis and Analysis
- Field Work
- Dramaturgy
- Postmodernism
- Macrolevel Social Mechanisms
- Program Evaluation and Case Study
- Longitudinal Research
- Decision Making Under Uncertainty
- Going Native
- Ethnographic Memoir
- Postpositivism
- Middle-Range Theory
- Program-Logic Model
- Mental Framework
- Document Analysis
- Informant Bias
- Ethnography
- Poststructuralism
- Naturalistic Generalization
- Prospective Case Study
- Mixed Methods in Case Study Research
- Factor Analysis
- Institutional Ethnography
- Ethnomethodology
- Poststructuralist Feminism
- Overdetermination
- Real-Time Cases
- Most Different Systems Design
- Fiction Analysis
- Interviews
- Eurocentrism
- Radical Empiricism
- Plausibility
- Retrospective Case Study
- Multimedia Case Studies
- High-Quality Analysis
- Iterative Nodes
- Families
- Radical Feminism
- Probabilistic Explanation
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Multiple-Case Designs
- Inductivism
- Language and Cultural Barriers
- Formative Context
- Reality
- Process Tracing
- Single-Case Designs
- Multi-Site Case Study
- Interactive Methodology, Feminist
- Multiple Sources of Evidence
- Frame Analysis
- Scientific Method
- Program Evaluation and Case Study
- Spiral Case Study
- Naturalistic Inquiry
- Interpreting Results
- Narrative Analysis
- Front Stage and Back Stage
- Scientific Realism
- Reporting Case Study Research
- Storyselling
- Natural Science Model
- Iterative
- Narratives
- Gendering
- Socialist Feminism
- Rhetoric in Research Reporting
- Number of Cases
- Iterative Nodes
- Naturalistic Context
- Genealogy
- Symbolic Interactionism
- Statistical Generalization
- Outcome-Driven Research
- Knowledge Production
- Nonparticipant Observation
- Governmentality
- Substantive Theory
- Paradigmatic Cases
- Method of Agreement
- Objectivity
- Grounded Theory
- Theory-Building With Cases
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Method of Difference
- Over-Rapport
- Hermeneutics
- Theory-Testing With Cases
- Participatory Action Research
- Multicollinearity
- Participant Observation
- Hybridity
- Underdetermination
- Participatory Case Study
- Multidimensional Scaling
- Participatory Action Research
- Imperialism
- Polar Types
- Over-Rapport
- Participatory Case Study
- Institutional Theory, Old and New
- Problem Formulation
- Pattern Matching
- Personality Tests
- Intertextuality
- Quantitative Single-Case Research Design
- Re-Analysis of Previous Data
- Problem Formulation
- Isomorphism
- Quasi-Experimental Design
- Regulating Group Mind
- Questionnaires
- Langue and Parôle
- Quick Start to Case Study Research
- Relational Analysis
- Reflexivity
- Layered Nature of Texts
- Random Assignment
- Replication
- Regulating Group Mind
- Life History
- Research Framework
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Reliability
- Logocentrism
- Research Objectives
- Rival Explanations
- Repeated Observations
- Management of Impressions
- Research Proposals
- Secondary Data as Primary
- Researcher-Participant Relationship
- Means of Production
- Research Questions, Types of Retrospective Case Study
- Serendipity Pattern
- Re-Use of Qualitative Data
- Metaphor
- Rhetoric in Research Reporting
- Situational Analysis
- Sensitizing Concepts
- Modes of Production
- Sampling
- Standpoint Analysis
- Subjectivism
- Multimethod Research Program
- Socially Distributed Knowledge
- Statistical Analysis
- Subject Rights
- Multiple Selfing
- Spiral Case Study
- Storyselling
- Theoretical Saturation
- Native Points of View
- Statistics, Use of in Case Study
- Temporal Bracketing
- Triangulation
- Negotiated Order
- Storyselling
- Textual Analysis
- Use of Digital Data
- Network Analysis
- Temporal Bracketing
- Thematic Analysis
- Utilization
- One-Dimensional Culture
- Thematic Analysis
- Use of Digital Data
- Visual Research Methods
- Ordinary Troubles
- Theory, Role of
- Utilization
- Organizational Culture
- Theory-Testing With Cases
- Webs of Significance
- Paradigm Plurality in Case Study Research
- Utilization
- Within-Case Analysis
- Performativity
- Validity
- Phenomenology
- Practice-Oriented Research
- Praxis
- Primitivism
- Qualitative Analysis in Case Study
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis
- Quantitative Single-Case Research Design
- Quick Start to Case Study Research
- Self-Confrontation Method
- Self-Presentation
- Sensemaking
- Sexuality
- Signifier and Signified
- Sign System
- Simulacrum
- Social-Interaction Theory
- Storytelling
- Structuration
- Symbolic Value
- Symbolic Violence
- Thick Description
- Writing and Difference
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