RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

CONCLUSION 413
the data mean. This chapter has outlined several
different types of observation and the premises that
underlie them, the selection of the method to be
used depending on ‘fitness for purpose’. Overriding
the issues of which specific method of observation
to use, this chapter has suggested that observation
places the observer into the moral domain, that
it is insufficient simply to describe observation
as a non-intrusive, non-interventionist technique
and thereby to abrogate responsibility for the
participants involved. Like other forms of data
collection in the human sciences, observation is
not a morally neutral enterprise. Observers, like
other researchers, have obligations to participants
as well as to the research community.
For examples of observational data see the accompanying
web site (http://www.routledge.com/
textbooks/9780415368780 – Chapter 18, file 18.1.
doc and http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/
9780415368780 – Chapter 18, file 18.2 doc).
Chapter 18