Objectivity in Research and Participant Observation

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Why do we use objectivity in research? What good has come from objectivity? How does participant observation play a role in research and what good comes from participant observation? Half the research done in the world today would not be the same without objectivity, and we wouldn't know half the things we know without participant observation. These two things play a huge role in research and I believe they are very helpful and also useful to each and every type of research. Objectivity is defined as, “allowing facts to speak for themselves and not be influenced by the researchers personal values and biases.” In comparison, research is defined by as, “any gathering of data, information and facts for the advancement of knowledge.” Together these definitions have one word in common, that is the word “facts”. Furthermore, when research is focused objectively there is emphasis placed merely on the facts, unlike subjective research that is full of variables. Therefore objectivity provides you with definite. In my personal opinion, objectivity is very important to understand and utilize in regards to research. Moving forward, with research involving social science, there many variables thus increasing the potential of personal biases and prejudices to interject. Consequently, subjectivity is an inevitable aspect of social research. Recall, that objectivity places it’s emphasis on the facts and their ability to speak for themselves. Thus, objectivity contributes to accurate and unbiased results. If objectivity is lacking, the results will be skewed, simply, due to complete disregard to other studies that do not support a personal point of view or opinion. For instance in terms of measurement, a ruler is objective because no matter what a ruler will always be twelve inches or one foot. In contrast, the United States population is subjective -meaning the exact population

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