A researcher has to learn the culture of a group if he / she is to participate fully in their behaviour and this may not always be easy or possible. If a researcher is too young, too old, too male or too female for the group they want to research this will cause problems of participation.

As we will also see, if a researcher is involved in covert participant observation their ability to blend seamlessly into a group is absolutely crucial to the success or failure of the research project...