Question

Recording Observations Unobtrusively record observations in a public place of your choice for at least thirty minutes or more. The place must have at least ten people to observe. Since you are playing the role of an unobtrusive investigator, you must not disturb the people and must be positioned so that the people will not really take notice of you. You should watch people and focus on behaviors. The behaviors might be ordinary or interesting. You might even choose to look at behaviors related to a theme, such as how people relax or you can look at dyadic interactions. No matter what you choose to observe, you should describe what you witness. Record the observations in your notebook in a 1- to 2-page Microsoft Word document. The observations should not be conducted with any specific notions or theories. Type and submit your notes, which should be at least 500 words. Include the date of the observation, the time, and the setting. Along with your observation notes, include five specific study ideas that come to mind because of your observations. For example: After observing mothers and children in the park, I would like to investigate whether mothers with multiple children allow the children to venture further away from them as compared to mothers with one child. You must also state hypotheses for at least two of your study ideas. For example, you might hypothesize mothers with only one child will keep their child closer than mothers with multiple children. *** Please help with my homework I am struggling with. Thank you.***

Answer 1

Introduction/Background:

Naturalistic observation is one of the research method, where the researcher observes the subjects in natural setting and can conceptualize the observation. This technique is qualitative form of research. In natural observation, there will be no manipulation of theme or environment. It is just simple observation to have fair idea in natural environment. Example: Observing kids in Montessori without notice of kids. Here, data or knowledge is not quantifiable and it is more related to theme to form a hypothesis.

Assignment:

Observe behavior of people in natural setting.

Setting:

Public park with playground chosen for observation.

Procedure followed:

1. Observation to be unobtrusive. At most care taken by the observer to keep observation natural and people in the setting did not notice they are being observed.

2. If particular theory is taken consideration, the observation may get biased to confirm that particular theory, hence no prior notions or theories while observing to avoid observer bias.

3. Observation made in natural setting for around 45 minutes.

4. Observation made in theme about people behavior while playing foot ball.

Description:

Observation took place in natural setting, where people are playing football with their friends. The average age of all players is around 15 years. The players observed are male but females are also involved watching the game and cheering the players. The intention of observer was observation of behavior pattern in players.

Initially, players assembled and greeted. After a brief warming up period, they started the football game. At this period, friendly behavior in all players can be noticed. There is a friendly and cooperative environment with some competitive spirit in players. When game started, there was a bit increase in competition noticed among the teams. Players started playing with more energy and strength with the aim of achieving victory. After some time, it is now observed that players grouped in team while taking break. Before the game, there was no particular team affiliation behavior and all the players were able to mingle with each other easily, but now team affiliation can be observed. After short break, game started again. Now, players are trying to provide resistance to player of other team and provide support to their own teammate. After game is over, players disbursed. Now it is observed players still had team affiliation rather than just friend behavior. They have internalized their role in football match and started to affiliate to team they were playing even after the match. Hence more intimacy between players of particular team and less intimacy with player of other team.

Study Ideas from Observation: After this observation task;

1. I would like to research on basis of affiliation behavior.

2. Study the effect of cooperation and resistance in group.

3. Research on role internalization while playing game or part taking in reality task. Example: Team leader behavior becomes dominant even though leadership is related to particular game only.

4. Effect of cheer leaders on player performance.

5. Player preference to win as a team or self performance. This study will be useful to determine group dynamics and can shed light on how individuals manage their personal objective with group objective (organization growth versus own growth).

Hypotheses:

From the above study ideas, we can form following hypotheses;

1. Players of particular team prefer to have close friendship with member of same team.

2. Individuals affiliated to particular team share more similar ideas within them rather with others.