Social Psych: Situational Observations - due April 19
Psychology/Sociology 210 -- Spring 2005 -- Dordt College -- Dr. Sherri Lantinga
Purpose
& Overview
This assignment further develops the observational skills you used in the film analysis project by having you observe and analyze a real-life situation. You have a choice whether to be an active or passive part of the situation, but in either case your social analysis skills and your appreciation for the power of situational factors should be enhanced.
Choose one of the observation assignment options you'd like to do (last semester's students reported that the first option is much more interesting and less time consuming than the second option). This is not an assignment about reflecting on your memory of some situation, but about sharpening your eyes and insights about the situational factors in front of you.
Option #1: Persuasion Target (based on Levine, Fast, & Zimbardo, 2004)
Set yourself up as a "target" of a persuasion expert in a setting of your choice: retail stores (e.g., jewelry, bridal, electronics, furniture), sales parties (e.g., Tupperware, candles), in-home sales (e.g., knives, vacuums, water purifiers), military recruiters, funeral coordinators, life insurance sales, etc. Because of the ethical concerns involved in these kinds of situations, you must have your setting pre-approved; e-mail your idea to Dr. Lantinga.
Once your setting has been approved, expose yourself to the persuasion situation. You are not required to tell blatant lies about your reason for being there but you should behave as naturally as you can. Exit the situation without buying or committing to anything and immediately write detailed notes about the setting and costumes (e.g., location, number of people present, lighting, background noise, dirty clothes), physical and demographic features of yourself and the expert, non-verbal behaviors of the persuasion expert (e.g., personal space, territoriality, gestures, eye contact, tone of voice), and verbal exchanges. You may wish to have a friend unobtrusively observe the interaction so that you can compare notes afterward. You will need to turn in these notes with your paper.
Write a 5-6-page (typed, double-spaced) analytical-reflective paper on your experience in which you address these points:
Create a setting map that includes the visible setting details and the location of the main people in the situation; attach this to your paper.
Summarize the main features of the setting, costumes, non-verbal behaviors, and verbal exchanges
Analyze your experience in terms of persuasion tactics and powerful situational influences. Support your analysis with specific examples from your observations.
Finally, reflect on what you learned about persuasion tactics or about yourself from this assignment.
Option #2: Objective Observations
Choose a relatively common social situation that has a script for brief social interactions and can be replicated across specific locations. For example, you might observe food order lines, dentist waiting rooms, grocery store check-out lanes, college information desks, etc. Make sure that you choose a setting that can be found in different locations (e.g., 2 different dentist offices).
After getting permission to do so from the owner/manager/supervisor, unobtrusively observe one setting for at least a half-hour during at least 2 times of day, then do the same in the other location at about those same times of day. For example, observe the waiting room at Dentist A from 8:30-9 and 3-4pm on Tuesday and the same times at Dentist B on Wednesday. Note details about the setting and costumes (e.g., location, number of people present, lighting, background noise, dirty clothes), physical and demographic features of the main "actors," non-verbal behaviors (e.g., personal space, territoriality, gestures, eye contact, tone of voice), and verbal exchanges. To manage the verbal and non-verbal data, you may wish to focus on a particular aspect of the social interaction, like the greeting or departure rituals, the exchange of money, the waiting process, etc. Take lots of notes so that you don't forget details later - you'll turn in your field notes with your paper.
Write a 5-6 page (typed, double-spaced) analytical-reflective paper on your observations in which you address these points:
Create a setting map that includes the visible setting details and the location of the main people in the situation; attach this to your paper.
Compare and contrast the main features of the settings, costumes, and type of people across the two situations
Summarize and compare/contrast any patterns of non-verbal behaviors and verbal exchanges
Analyze the settings in terms of social psychological concepts/theories and powerful situational influences. Support your analysis with specific examples from your observations.
Finally, reflect on what surprised you or what you learned about situational factors or yourself from this assignment.
Paper Evaluation Criteria
Your paper (worth 100 points) will be graded based on the following criteria:
Your paper is due in class on April 19. Note the Psychology Department's late policy on the course syllabus. It is a good idea to have someone help you proofread a draft of your paper.
Speech
To help your classmates learn more about what you observed, you will give a 2-3 minute (maximum) speech on April 19. In your speech, introduce yourself, briefly explain the setting you were in and whether your were a target or an observer, and focus on one specific aspect of that situation: a particularly good example of a persuasion tactic, how a difference in situations affected behavior between the two settings, etc. These speeches should give the class clear examples of how situational or interpretive factors influence social behavior; they may be entertaining as well, but don't just tell funny stories in your speech. These speeches are worth 10 points, based on the clarity of your example and your delivery style.
page last reviewed January 2005