Problems Honestly Observing

There are a number of dilemmas that can come up in a ethnographer’s research, but the main issues I can think of that would strike on a moral level would revolve around covert roles. In order to keep your role as a researcher a secret one must lie to the very people they are trying to get to trust them. These lies can be difficult the longer a research stays in the covert role mainly because it would be hard if not impossible to not form a personal relationship. The other thing that can come from creating relationships is the difficulty in making objective observations. It has happened to everyone. We like the people, but our job is to study them in a scientific manner. Then you code all the data and form an opinion that is supported by the data. However, if you like the subjects then it is much more likely that your data will be jaded.