Cambridge IGCSE Sociology of maintaining a cover. Barker would have had to behave at all times as a believing Moonie. Making notes without arousing suspicion would have been difficult, as would leaving the research situation. 4 Barker had an initial problem in that the Unification Church invited her to research. She would therefore have to insist that she be given access to all areas of Moonie life. Without this, her research would be compromised; she might not be able to give a full account and could be accused of allowing herself to be used by the Moonies to present a misleadingly positive account. She would also face a problem when carrying out her participant observation because, living with the Moonies, she would not have access to other ideas and might find herself ‘going native’ – accepting Moonie ideas and becoming a Moonie herself. Even if this did not happen, she would, as usually happens in participant observation, become so close to the Moonies that she would see things from their perspective and so it can be questioned whether her account is unbiased. 5 Because at first she was a stranger, and also she would not know what to ask. After listening in for a while, she would be able to ask meaningful questions.
© Cambridge University Press 2014 Cambridge IGCSE Sociology
Unit 1: Worksheets and Answers
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