?Researchers do not really know if they are dealing with a representative population.
?Outside influence on the informants. It may be difficult to determine if an informant is acting in a certain way due to the presence of an outsider. The observer is part of the context being observed. He/she modifies, and is influenced by these circumstances.
?This data-gathering technique is and increased threat to the objectivity of the researcher, unsystematic gathering of data, and reliance on subjective measurement.
?The objectivity issue. Participation is a form of investment of time, energy, and self, and as such it raises obvious questions of possible bias. However, defenders of participant observation find greater bias in allegedly neutral instruments such as survey questionnaires. These, they say, involve the imposition of an externally conceived “scientific” measuring device (the questionnaire) on individuals who do not perceive reality according to that external conception (Bruyn, 1966).
Participant Observation is one of the most common methods for qualitative data collection; participant observation is also one of the most demanding. It requires that the researcher become a participant in the culture or context being observed. The literature on participant observation discusses how to enter the context, the role of the researcher as a participant, the collection and storage of field notes, and the analysis of field data. Participant observation often requires months or years of intensive work because the researcher needs to become accepted as a natural part of the culture in order to assure that the observations are of the natural phenomenon. Participant observation offers many positive aspects in research and it has already overcome many disadvantages of prior research methods. However, we always need to keep in mind that participant observation is conducted by a person, an individual with many character traits that are included in the result of the project.
?Issues in Participant Observation: A Text and Reader. Ed. George McCall and J.L. Simmons. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1969.
?Qualitative research in information management / [edited by] Jack D. Glazier and Ronald R. Powell. Englewood, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, 1992.
?Research Methods In Cultural Anthropology. H. Russell Bernard. Sage Publications, 1989.
?The human perspective in sociology: The methodology of participant observations. Bruyn Severyn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966.