| ........... |
.
.
.
| Unobtrusive
measures are those that do not intrude on the subjects. |
.
| If you study them from the telephone
book, for example, they will not know that they are being studied. |
.
| If you sit on a bus and observe where
people tend to sit, they are unlikely to know that are being observed. |
.
| The problem with many unobtrusive
measures is that they, too, are unlikely to reveal much valid or meaningful
in-depth material. |
.
| Living with people, as in participant
observation, is a possibility of being unobtrusive, so long as you do not
tell your subjects that you are there as a scientist to study them.
This raises an ethical question about observing
people without their knowledge. |
.
| As with taking a formal photograph,
if they know you are there to study them, they will pose for you. |
.
| At some point, however, you may want
to supplement your observations with some in-depth questions. |
.
| Again, this may be
done with or without telling them they are being studied. |
.
| If they trust you, they are less
likely to hide information from you, and perhaps less likely to give you
answers that they think you want to hear. |
.
| It is a bit like the
problem faced in nuclear chemistry or physics. |
.
| If you determine the location of
an electron, you modify its velocity, or if you determine its velocity,
you modify its location. |
.
| The very act of observation (if you
want great accuracy) itself results in the subject modifying its behaviour. |
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