Naturalistic observations and evaluation

Assignment Help Other Subject

Reference no: EM13798633

Naturalistic Observations and Evaluation

Conducting an ethnographic study is a fun way of gathering research about your social environment. You may have done an ethnography before without really being aware of it. In a small way, this assignment recreates what ethnographers do when they visit a new community to conduct research.

Complete the following:

Observation

Choose a restaurant, library, mall, dining hall, coffee shop, or similar public location. Plan to spend a minimum of two hours at the location. You will visit this location twice, for a minimum of four hours total. Keep in mind that if you should find one of your peers in the establishment at the same time when you are there, do not interrupt him/her and do not do the assignment at the same time.
Document what occurs at this chosen location:
- Describe the establishment.
- Analyze the interactions between people.

Next, write a paper documenting and analyzing your observations of the location.

Observation Notes

Your observation notes should specifically include the following:

Name and location of the establishment
Dates and times you were there
Place where you stood/sat and when you did your research
Description of the physical characteristics of the inside and outside of the establishment (e.g. brick or concrete structure, paint color, seating arrangements)
Number and types of people visiting the establishment while you were there (age, sex, type of clothing, probable occupations, ethnicity, etc.)
Document interactions such as:
- specific nature of the interactions that take place in the establishment among customers, between customers and staff, and among staff
- types of languages used in the establishment and by whom
- any strange or unusual behavior

Analysis Summary

Include the following in your analysis:

Comparison of similarities and differences of this establishment and other similar establishments you know about
Nature of the treatment of customers in the establishment
Relationships between customers and workers
Any behavior that surprised you or was contrary to your expectations
How it felt to do the research
Most difficult aspects of the research
What you found most interesting about the research

In your analysis, be sure to draw upon your observations to support your conclusions.

Appendix

In the appendix of your paper, include the following:

A sketch of the layout of the establishment (You can draw in a computer program, like Paint that comes preloaded on most PCs and insert it into your Word file.)
Transcription of your notes

Write a 4-6-page paper in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.

Reference no: EM13798633

Questions Cloud

Problems based on one''s political sensibilities : Identify three (3) scenes from the film that support your thesis statement. Briefly explain.

Summary of the tectonic evolution : Write a one page summary of the tectonic evolution of the region of the North American continent in which you live (Florida).

Which is a theory of identity across time : Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Which is a theory of identit..

Naturalistic observations and evaluation : Conducting an ethnographic study is a fun way of gathering research about your social environment. You may have done an ethnography before without really being aware of it. In a small way, this assignment recreates what ethnographers do when they ..

Electronic commerce hardware and software : why using this combination of software and hardware is better than using an alternative approach to solve the problem.

Stress on the failure plane of alandslide : Over the course of the term, we calculated the shear stress on the failure plane of alandslide, at the bed of a river, under wind, and beneath a glacier. List each of theseequations, and explain what assumptions the equations have in common as wel..

Overview of the organization and the leader : If you were in that person's place or worked for the organization, would you make the same choices? Why or why not?

Identify three intellectual property concerns : Using the three intellectual property concerns that you identified in the first part of this discussion - determine which concerns can be addressed by processes internal to the firm and which must be handled by factors.

User Account

All Pages