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 Tuesday September 21 2004

Observers Paradox

While reading for the latest research methods essay I found to concepts to be very similar: the Hawthorne Effect and the Observers Paradox. The Hawthorne Effect is when subjects are “so pleased at being included in a study that the results of the investigation are more closely related to this pleasure than to anything that actually occurs in the research.”1 Now clearly this is not the same as the Observers Paradox, which is the fact that being observed or recorded changes the behavior of the subjects.


I do feel that they are very related and may be synonymous in certain situations, however I am unable to find any original sources on the observers paradox. It is not difficult to find secondary sources or secondary quotes (Labov cited in yada yada yada) but what I would really like is to read some original Labov or at least a source that gives a more indepth explanation.

One last thing while googling for observers paradox I opened a pdf that is really a book (263 pgs) that someone may be interested in. Apologizing in British English - I saved it to my hard drive and will look later.


1Brown, J. D. (1988). Understanding Research in Second Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Sep 21, 2004 at 11:00 PM
general_linguistic_study | Research_Methods |

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