What are some of the things that ethnographers and sociologists do during participant observation?

Participant observation is a method of data collection which is commonly used in qualitative research process like Sociology and anthropology. Under this method the data is not collected by survey or interview but the person conducting research that is the sociologist or the social anthropologist spends many months or years with the people about whom the research is being conducted as a non native outsider.

Participant observation is also called field work. The things that ethnographers and sociologist do during participant observation are -

• They spend maximum time with those people who are the subject matter of the research.

• They try to become a part of the community on which the research is being conducted.

• They do not collect data by interviewing the people of the community but by observing them on regular basis.

So, through the method of participant observation the sociologist try to learn about the entire life of the community.