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Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions · Model answer

What are the ethical issues that a researcher faces in making use of participant observation as a method of collecting data? Explain.

  • UPSC 2023
  • Research Methods and Analysis

Participant observation, the method Bronislaw Malinowski established as a sociological and anthropological discipline through his fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands, generates its explanatory power precisely from the researcher's deep immersion in the life of the group studied.

You are reading the opening of the model answer. The full answer is part of Sociology Optional PYQ Solutions.

What the full answer covers

  • Covert Observation: Deception as the Foundational Problem
  • "Going Native" and the Erosion of Both Ethics and Analytic Honesty
  • Harm to Subjects and the Communities Studied
  • The Gatekeeper Problem: Consent by Proxy
  • Confidentiality and Anonymity in Small, Identifiable Settings
  • Power Asymmetry Between Researcher and Studied Group

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