AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -It provides results that lend validity to a proposed theory. The participant observation approach collects an abundant amount of qualitative data that is useful in a variety of postulations. It allows researchers to receive a clear picture of how people are living and interacting with each other.

Detailed explanation-2: -It gives the researcher a better understanding of what is happening in the culture and lends credence to one’s interpretations of the observation. Participant observation also enables the researcher to collect both quantitative and qualitative data through surveys and interviews.

Detailed explanation-3: -(i) The method involves a lot of time and effort. (ii) It also involves a lot of expenses during work. (iii) It is not necessary that the report consists of the views of the insider or of the sociologist, as the sociologist may become consciously or unconsciously bias in selecting what to write and what not to.

Detailed explanation-4: -The strengths of participant observation include the depth of knowledge that it allows the researcher to obtain and the perspective of knowledge of social problems and phenomena generated from the level of the everyday lives of those experiencing them.

Detailed explanation-5: -Participant observation (whether overt or covert) is not the most reliable research method. Such studies are, by their very nature, impossible to repeat and the data they produce is simply the opinion of one observer.