Management 2700B – Fall 2005
Observation Research
Observation research – the systematic process of recording the behavioural
patterns of people, objects and occurrences without questioning or
communicating with them.
What can be observed?
Human behaviour and physical actions
Expressive behaviour
Spatial relations and locations
Temporal patterns
Physical objects
Verbal or pictorial records
How can these observation be done?
People watching people
People watching phenomena
Machines watching people
Machines watching phenomena
Natural vs. contrived
Visible vs. disguised
Direct vs. indirect
Advantages:
- do rather than say
- communication is not necessary
- no need to rely on participants memory
- nonverbal data can be obtained
- combined with other methods
- environmental conditions can be recorded
Disadvantages:
- no feelings, attitudes, intentions
- costly and time consuming
- interpretation of data may be a problem
- possible invasion of privacy
From the video, try to document (observe) one of these areas:
Human behaviour and physical actions
Expressive behaviour
Spatial relations and locations
Temporal patterns