The uses of observation as research method

The most general use of observation in research is exploratory, as it is in real life. When we take up a new job, enter university, move to a different part of the country (or to a different country), or even just go on holiday to a new region, we look around us. In that novel setting everything is going on presumably as normal; we nodce differences, of course, but our main preoccupation is how things work in the social sense, what the ‘rules’ are: because every social setting operates in a different way. This is a familiar and often surprising experience when we change jobs, even within the same regulated profession, or to another insti­tution governed by the same, standardized legal require­ments. A different school, hospital, police force has its own character, operates its own ‘rules’ within the same regulatory framework. If we have any sense we don’t make overt com­parisons but ‘research’ the sub-culture we find ourselves in. This kind of initial, exploratory phase is adaptive: we learn lessons that we can act upon, avoid blundering on in a state of ignorance. It is also widely applicable in the preliminary stage of much social research, from which purpose, ques­tions and methods emerge.

Observation as an initial technique may lead to quite dif­ferent methods in the main study: surveys, problem-focused action research, focused case studies, experiments of one kind or another. None of these would be possible, or sen­sible, without preliminary observation of an unfamiliar social context. Such early immersion also guides reading and, as the issues are identified, we come to know what to search for in the literature – the beginning of an iterative cycle of first­hand experience and studying the research reports of others.

Source: Gillham Bill (2008), Observation Techniques: Structured to Unstructured, Continuum; Illustrated edition.