I wanted to comment quickly with the name of the effect I mentioned in class (that I couldn't remember the name of)--in which the social experiment (or presence of the researcher) itself has an impact on the nature of the results. There was a very famous sociological study done on productivity among workers in the 1930s where it was noticed that productivity increased greatly as a result of the presence of the researcher--thus skewing the data. Wikipedia has a description of this study and what is called the Hawthorne Effect . This is relevant to us regarding the research undertaken by the anthropologists in our course readings (as we talked about in class)--to what extent are their informants' behaviors or ideologies changing as a result of the fact that they are being researched? Also, how, when we undertake our own research, will the fact of our presence impact the kind of knowledge we get.
There is one interesting permutation of the Hawthorne Effect as it relates to social constructionism. If you think about it, the fact* of the Hawthorne Effect actually confirms the nature of knowledge as contingent on its surrounding social conditions. The presence of the researcher represents one possible influence on what we eventually label as knowledge.
*Fact in this case being often repeated and acknowledged occurrences alongside broad professional (social scientist) consensus.
I think it's amusingly appropriate that this concept - the act of observation fundamentally changing the subject being observed - is mirrored in quantum physics as well, in the classic double slit experiment. This video
ReplyDelete(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc&feature=player_detailpage#t=90s)
is a pretty good at explaining it, but I'll summarize here, too.
Electrons fired at a screen through two narrow slits normally behave like waves, forming an interference pattern on the screen after passing through the slits. However, if a detector is placed at one of the slits such that the observer then knows which of the two slits the electron passes through, suddenly the electrons start behaving like particles, forming a two-band pattern on the detector screen instead of a wave-like interference pattern. The very act of observing the electrons changes their behavior!
The Hawthorne Effect, then, looks like a macroscopic extension of one of the most basic laws of the universe!
The double spit experiment is an interesting correspondence! :)
ReplyDeleteWhat is the phrase: "As above, so below"?
One thing about the hawthorne effect... I think it is harder to isolate or identify during the process of anthropological work due to the myriad of possible influences on our data outside of a controlled experimental environment. This is why description and self-reflection are so important in qualitative research.
Also, I think it's really important to eat food, work out, have fun and touch the ground every once and a while, because (in my experience) this knower/known stuff can be like a double mirror hallway if we let our minds wander far enough.