Field note observation
Name
Institution
Field note observation on How many people are looking down to texting using cell phone or any other usages
What was the research question?
The search question was: How many people are looking down to texting using cell phone or any other usages? The question aimed to determine the number of people who look down to testing using their cell phones or any other usages.
What did you set out to observe
I set out to observe how many people were looking down to texting using their mobile phones or any other usages at the Mall of America and Rainbow Grocery Store. The observation showed that many people look down to their phones testing of doing other activities with their phones which is very dangerous to their safety. While testing or using the cell phone, most of the people do not look where they are going and are likely to bump it each other and cause injuries. Even more dangerous, is the group of phone users who in addition to looking down to their phones, have earphones on and are thus totally oblivious of their surrounding. Their attention is torn between the phone and what they are doing and they end up totally disregarding whatever else they are doing by totally concentrating on the phone.
Where did you conduct your observation and how did you go about it?
I conducted the observations at the Mall of America and Rainbow Grocery Store. At the I conducted the observation on the North side of the Mall. I position myself and a peculiar position in front of a coffee shop and observed the shoppers as they went about their business. I observed people noting their activities with their phones, their gender and age. I noted young girls and boys who were either alone of per groups such as families looking down at their phone texting or doing other activities with their phones. The phones were a big distraction to these people expressing them to the risks of causing serious accidents. In my observation, about 30% of the people were deeply engrossed in activities such as texting. The second observation also too the same approach, however, I was more mobile with in the location of my observation, the Rainbow grocery store uptown. My mobility made me noticeable by the shop attendants, and I had to move to another Rainbow grocery store. I wandered in the second store noting the activities of the shopper, their gender and age. Most of the shoppers were mainly middle aged women. In this store only there people, all men, looked at their phones texting. Of the three men, two were together. They looked like college students. The observation at the store did not meet my expectations since I expected may people to look at their phones. Definitely, the observation s I made to the Mall of America and Rainbow Grocery Store were different. Although I did the same kind of observation at the two stores, the results were very different. However, all the results indicated that texting while walking is a serous social problem. Texting while walking predisposes people to accidents and injuries.
What would you say were the merits and drawbacks of using covert and overt observations to collect data on the research question at hand?
Observation as a means of collecting data can be covert or overt. Using observation as a means of collecting data has several advantages and disadvantages. In covert observation the researcher fully takes part in the activities of the group he is researching without informing the members on the why he is participating in their activities. This way he conducts the observation secretly. The researcher only uses a gatekeeper, who is member of the group to introduce him to the group. The main pros to this approach are:
The researcher could access groups that can’t freely consent to being researched
The observer could avoid misleading behaviors know as observer effect (whereby group members change when they know that they are being observed). The researcher may however have a difficult time in recording the data.
In addition to difficulties in recording collected data, covert observation of participant has several other cons:
The researcher may have to get involved in the same activities as the participants
Researchers may find the challenges of having to engage in the activities of the participants unpleasant.
The researchers had to employ a level of deceit especial on the reasons of hi presence in the group.
There is a problem of going native, whereby the researcher may stop being a researcher and become a group participant on fulltime basis.
Overt observation, on the other hand, involves a researcher being open to the group on their reasons for joining the group and gain permission to conduct research on the group before he can commence researching. The researcher uses a sponsor-an individual who commands respect in the group-to access the group. Using a sponsor lessen the hostility a research is like to encounter while studying the group. The main disadvantage for over observation if the risk of observer effect, since subject are like to change their behavior because they know they are being observed. However, the approach has several advantages:
The researcher avoids ethical problems associated with the group since every one know of his presence
The shoppers can be observed from a natural setting
Data is easily and openly recorded
The problems of going native are avoided
Another appropriate research method
The other research method that I would have used to conduct this study is in In-depth interviews. This method would generate qualitative data about the habit of texting while walking. Through the interviews the selected sample of interviewees can give information in regard to why they look at their phone while walking e.g. are they normally texting or there is another activity that do when looking at the phones. The responders can also give information on how frequent the look at their phone when walking, whether they have ever cause an accident or injury to themselves or other people through the active. The interviewees can also provide information how they feel about texting while walking.
Your role and the relationship between you, the “researcher” and the “researched
In any research situation, the researcher and the researched share a unique relationship. The researcher is a seeker of information and the researcher is the provider of the information the two must have a proper cordial relationship in order to exchange the information. However, in a covert observation study such as this one, the only the researcher know of the relationship that exists between her and the researched. The researched were not aware that they were being researched. Based on the data collection approach used, the researcher can be termed as the observer while the researched are the observed. They are customer to different malls. The researcher is an experimenter and must provide the necessary factors for the element being research to yield usable data. In this research as the experimenter, I did not need to provide any condition since the experiment was conducted in situ. I observed elements in their natural environment without any controlled variables. This provided opportunity to watch shopper use their phone when they are shopping or conducting other activities at shopping mall. The observer does bit interfere with the subjects thus giving them authority to yield more observable details through undertaking their activities the way the always do. Power is a common component of relationships and also affects research and researched relationship. Always, the researched has an upper hand since they can chose to answer question or reject to participate at all. On the other hand, it always better when a researcher assumes a low power profile since this way, it is easy to persuade the researched to participate. In this research, powered was rather balanced since as researcher I not manipulate the variable associated with the participants and participants could no know what was taking place otherwise they could have changed their behavior due to
