During participant observation, ethnographers and sociologists engage in a long period of interaction with the people they are studying. Typically, they spend many months or about a year living among the people as one of them to understand their society and culture.

As an outsider, the researcher tries to immerse himself/herself in the culture of the 'natives'. This involves learning their language and participating intimately in their everyday life. The effort is to acquire all the explicit and implicit knowledge and skills of an 'insider'.

Although they may have specific areas of interest, the overall goal is to learn about the 'whole way of life' of a community. Sociologists specifically spend most of their time with community members to achieve this holistic understanding.