Participant Observation vs. Undercover Investigations

Whenever I teach about participant observation (chapter 10), I nearly always get a question about how participant observation research compares with police undercover investigations.

The first thing I say is that the goal of research is to collect empirical data for scientific purposes. Whereas the goal of an undercover investigation is to collect evidence of a crime. Thus, at the outset there is a big difference in the goals of each.

In participant observation, an IRB must first review the prospectus of the research and decide whether any ethical problems exist. If ethical problems exist, the IRB must provide some guidelines on how to handle them. I like to tell the story of Jim Quinn, a member of the Department of Rehabilitation, Social Work, and Addictions at North Texas State. For his PhD research, he joined the Bandidos motorcycle gang in Miami. That research was also reported in his article:

Quinn, J. F. (1987). Sex roles and hedonism among members of`outlaw' motorcycle clubs" Deviant Behavior, 8, 47-63.

He had to cut his research short because he became convinced that if he remained in the club he would become party to a crime. Ethically, a scientist cannot use the conduct of research as an excuse to participate or be party to criminal acts.

Let's now look at undercover investigations. Recall, the goal here is to find evidence of criminal activity and to, later, prosecute it. Ethics is a concern here too. What are the permissible activities that an undercover officer may participate in? Can the officer smoke a joint? Obviously, officers must lie in order to establish a relationship with a criminal. In sex crime cases, like prostitution, how far can an officer allow sexual contact? Can an officer threaten someone into committing a crime? Can an officer continually offer criminal temptation to a potential criminal? The ethical line seems fuzzier and broader to me here than in participant observation.

All of the questions above are not really part of a typical psychology research course. However, many of the activities that participant observers and undercover investigators take part in are similar. Just remember that their goals are quite different.

Earliest Memories? The phenonenon of childhood amnesia

Here's a research question that has long intrigued me, a person's oldest memory. My oldest memory is from about three years of age. We lived in Bogota, Colombia at the time. I remember looking out the window at the stairway landing at a distant Andean peak that, apparently, was only visible every now and then because of the weather.

As a parent, I have informally tested my children from time to time about their memories. Once, I asked my oldest if he remembered visiting the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum a year after his last visit. He was about five years old at the time and he did not remember. I probed, and asked if he remembered what animal was just inside the main doors in the museum's rotunda. He still did not remember.

Here is what he did not remember, the giant elephant:

When discussing memory in class, I often ask students to recall their oldest memories. Sometimes the answers are quite extreme. Some students claim to recall salient events before they turned two years of age, while others are at a loss to recall anything before age five.

With the above as introduction, I found Wang's recent article quite apropos. Its title is: Where Does Our Past Begin? A Sociocultural Perspective on the Phenomenon of Childhood Amnesia. Here is a link to it.

Wang summarizes the data on childhood amnesia. Looks at theoretical attempts to explain it and proposes that childhood amnesia may vary socioculturally.

The Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students

The Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students (ASPS) will hold its 24th annual meeting on April 18-19, 2008 at Arkansas State University and our own Chris Spatz will be the keynote speaker.

ASPS was founded in 1984 by Randy Smith and Ralph McKenna. The germ of their inspiration came while walking down Bourbon St. during the 1983 meeting of the Southwestern Psychological Association. The first meeting was held at Hendrix College in 1984 followed by a second meeting at Ouachita Baptist University the following year. See below for a list of the locations where ASPS has been held over the years.

That second meeting was where Chris and I first met. In fact, we roomed together. So, we have been working together for a long time now.

Here are the previous sites and keynote speakers of the Arkansas Symposium for Psychology Students:

1985	Hendrix College	March 29-30
1986	Ouachita Baptist University	April 11-12	Steve Davis
1987	Southern Arkansas University	April 3-4	Arthur J. Riopelle
1988	Arkansas Tech University	April 8-9	Richard Dana
1989	Arkansas State University	April 7-8	E. John Capaldi, Michael Prince
1990	Henderson State University	April 6-7	Nate Azrin
1991	University of Arkansas-Fayetteville	April 5-6	Elizabeth Loftus
1992	Hendrix College	April 3-4	Charles Brewer
1993	Ouachita Baptist University	April 2-3	Mark Ware
1994	Southern Arkansas University	April 8-9	Bill Hill
1995	University of Arkansas-Monticello	April 7-8	Richard Miller
1996	Arkansas Tech University	April 12-13	Craig Carson
1997	University of Central Arkansas	April 11-12	Mark Ware
1998	University of Arkansas-Fayetteville	April 3-4	Phillip Costanzo
1999	Harding University	April 16-17	Dave Myers
2000	Arkansas State University	April 7-8	Sarah Boysen
2001	Hendrix College	April 6-7	Charles Brewer
2002	Ouachita Baptist University	April 12-13	Ludy Benjamin
2003	Southern Arkansas University	April 4-5	Elizabeth Yost Hammer
2004	University of Arkansas-Fayetteville	April 4-5	Brett Pelham
2005	Arkansas Tech University	April 8-9	Sharon Roberts
2006	University of Central Arkansas	April 7-8	John Harsh
2007	University of Arkansas-Monticello	April 13-14	no invited speaker
2008	Arkansas State University	April 19-19	Chris Spatz

McKenna and Smith envisioned a low-stress, collegial conference where students and faculty could come together and celebrate research in psychology. At ASPS, all papers are accepted and there are no competitions, all in the service of friendly gathering and a good time.