Merits of Participant Observation

Participant observation is a very useful method of research and has the following merits :1.A researcher is able to observe the real behaviour being very near to natural environment can note these which people cannot express or do not want to express and this cannot be done in non-participant observation.

2.It consists of long time and the researcher being part of the group, he can observe the behaviour which other researchers ignore.

3.Its merit lies in the fact that the researcher is very near to the problem or social condition under study in a natural environment and can get details on the basis of a relation of basic nature and can record on audio tape and can observe again in case of need.

4.A researcher provides such an importance to a research as to lessen the possibility of any complication for its generalization because they do not consist of interview or 'survey superficial answer of an artificial environment.

5.Interviews and experiments are done rapidly in an artificial environment and in the state' of anger, haste, mental tension on the part of an interviewee making the response affected and polluted affecting the consequences negatively whereas a researcher in participant observation collects data in a natural and real environment and extraordinary condition can be ignored which is an additional facility.

Demerits of Participant Observation

1.A researcher may ignore certain activities of the subject under study thinking them natural and common.

2.He may influence the members of the group under study thus changing their attitude making it artificial.

3.Participant observation provides a qualitative data and this data is not gained which makes different the study ofanalysisof relationship of variables.

4.Participant observation has the defect of not being repeatable because :i. The behaviour of the members of a group changes with time.ii. A researcher also changes. Different researchers note different things and behaviour so their repetition becomes difficult.