Sociology · May / June 2021 · Paper 14 · Question 1

Source A A researcher’s non-participant observation study focused on how four different institutions cared for elderly patients. The patients suffered from a range of problems including memory loss and confused thinking. Over several months the researcher visited the institutions at different times of day and night, during weekdays as well as weekends. This enabled the researcher to gather in-depth data on the life of elderly patients. The researcher stated that the success of the study depended on building personal and trusting relationships with the respondents. This made the elderly patients more willing to open up to the researcher. However the researcher did recognise, by developing close relationships with respondents, that “it can be hard not to become too emotionally involved”. The researcher stated that she had better relationships with some respondents than others and observations were influenced by what she felt: “I might have seen and heard things differently because of positive or negative feelings”. Adapted from a study by Declercq (2000): Observation in Nursing Home Wards for People Suffering from Dementia

Read automatically from the paper; the printed page above is exact.