Unobtrusive Research

            In research class, for the last two weeks we have been discussing the research known as unobtrusive research.   We learned the advantages and disadvantages of unobtrusive research along with what studies usually pertain to unobtrusive research.  It is obvious when using this research that we want to be unbiased, which is usually the situation with all research. 

            In class the first presentation about secondary unobtrusive research was very helpful in  the explanation of this research. Amy and Dave said, “ These methods allow researchers to study things from afar without influencing the process. This can eliminate or minimize many of the threats to validity of research that we have raised though out the course, such as reactivity and social desirability bias.”  This is true on many levels. If someone was being watched or interviewed, they are most likely to act differently. They may be more prone to do something that  they wouldn’t usually do or say when not being interviewed. It is natural for people to change their minds and act differently, because most people don’t want certain things to get out. This is especially pertinent when we are talking about touchy situations.

            A touchy topic could be seen through the one that was spoken of in class. The one professor talked about was the pornographic magazine sales.  Instead of interviewing people and possibly embarrassing them, the researchers actually went through their garbage to see who had bought pornographic magazines, and who hadn’t. This is a prime example of unobtrusive research. 

 In an online book, Methods of Social Research, I took interest to a study which was done on racial prejudice. This was  unobtrusive indirect  research being done along side of direct research. The direct research was seen through a survey on racial prejudice. People were questioned if they were prejudiced. The most common answer was "no". The researcher wanted to double check this direct research by performing some unobtrusive indirect research. So unobtrusive research can also be used as an additional tool in someones research. 

Unobtrusive research seems to be the most interesting to me, because it is always fun to see what kinds of different ways people will try and capture their research.