5.4 Observation

The observation = the researcher's own eyes as the instrument — the behaviour studied directly, not through self-report. The four cells (the 2x2): the participant observation (inside the setting — the intern's courtroom ethnography) vs. the non-participant (the gallery's systematic watching); the structured (the observation schedule's categories — the court's morning: the cases called, the minutes each stage takes) vs. the unstructured (the open field notes — the exploratory phase). The classics in legal research: the courtroom observation studies (the hearing's realities: the lawyers' lateness, the judge's questions, the parties' silence — what no file records), the police-station observation, the mediation's watching. Strengths: the behaviour itself (not the account of behaviour — the self-report's gaps bypassed); the context's texture; the taken-for-granted visible. Limits: the observer's effect (the watched changing behaviour — the reactivity problem), the observer's own lens (the bias discipline — the categories declared), the access's permissions (the courtroom's and institution's gates), the generalisation's humility (what is one courtroom's morning?). The tools together (the closing frame): the survey gives breadth, the interview depth, the observation texture, the questionnaire the standardised spine — the mature study triangulates (the same question answered by more than one tool, the tools' weaknesses offsetting). Exam Focus Long questions: (i) The survey's eight steps + census vs. sampling + the sampling types; (ii) The interview's…