ABSTRACT
Participant observation requires the researcher to play the dual roles of observer: the researcher looking at the respondents from a researchers perspective in an effort to faithfully interpret and record the reality of the situation and the participant who has a stake in the activities and outcomes of the behaviours being observed. Researchers can supplement their observations by recording and giving an interpretation of the conversations that are heard. Covert research involves deception because it is based upon the purposeful misleading of subjects by the researcher. One of the main strengths of participant observation as a method of data collection is that because participant observers experience the reality of the situation that the respondents experience it allows the researcher to understand the context in which interpersonal behaviour takes place. Observation provides a descriptive measure of social action. There are four common approaches to understanding the meaning of social action, including conversation: verstehen, sympathetic introspection, humanistic coefficient, sympathetic reconstruction.
