Participant observation yields deeper portraits of mentality than verbal survey data do

Evidence

Paradoxically, this macrohumanistic research, originally preoccupied with the minutiae of overt behavior and objective physical data, metamorphosed into a depiction of modal group mentality. Participant observers such as Goffman recorded external gross behavior as data, but their interpretations often depict mentality more than do accounts by the survey researchers, even though the latter’s verbal interview material promises more direct access to the subjective worlds of the respondents. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 369

Categorization

• CANDY: A neat paradox worth dropping in conversation: the method recording only external behavior ends up depicting inner life better than the method asking directly about it.
• XREF: connects to: Embedded observation immerses researchers in workers’ daily lives for deeper data — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2098