Observation: Between the Objective and the Subjective

Abstract

This paper is framed within the research project “Creativity and Alienation in Learning Groups”, developed by a team from the Social Psychology course and by teachers from other Psychology courses at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Defined as action research, it investigates the processes of learning groups at the University, with the aim of modifying our everyday practice in such groups.

In the effort to find a working methodology consistent with this perspective, and in order to reflect on the processes of creativity and alienation, the technique of observation emerged as a topic requiring further study.

The objective, then, is to delve into a relevant and controversial issue from an epistemological point of view: the need and the possibility—or impossibility—of achieving objectivity in observation and, at the same time, to inquire into the role of subjectivity in recording the group process. To this end, I have analyzed observations of these groups, which worked with the operative group technique in practical classes and workshops of the Social Psychology course during 2010.

The conclusions I have reached account for the importance of incorporating the interplay of the observers’ subjectivity into their records as an objective fact, even if this may seem confusing, in order to achieve greater objectivity. This raises the need to include more than one observer, thus making triangulation possible, and also to investigate more precisely the fantasies of both observers and group members regarding this role. In this way, relevance is given to the role of the observer in the structuring of the group that works with the operative group technique. It is necessary to reflect on those ideas and feelings that involve the observer and, on that basis, to incorporate new forms of recording in which the subjective can be highlighted as another aspect to be recorded in detail.