Brainstorming
Okay guys, I need some help. I need to do this Observational Hypothesis report where I come up with something social that I want to observe, gather data, and write a report on it.
Examples from what people have done previously are:
1. Recording how often people wash their hands in public restrooms when you're visibly there as opposed to hiding in a stall.
2. Dropping singles in plain sight of someone walking behind you to see if they return them to you.
3. Dressing really nicely and going into a jewelry store to see how the clerk treats you and then comparing it to going in dressed like a scrub.
4. Putting brown gunk on your teeth before going up and talking to someone to see if they'll tell you.
Stuff like that. You get the picture. Just a social study to observe how people interact publically. Anyone is fair game once they step out their front door, but you can't stalk them or anything. One of the things I'll be graded on is creativity, so it has to be good. Also, it can't involve actually interviewing people or asking them questions. It has to be purely based on observation (to avoid ethical issues).
Anybody have any suggestions?
Examples from what people have done previously are:
1. Recording how often people wash their hands in public restrooms when you're visibly there as opposed to hiding in a stall.
2. Dropping singles in plain sight of someone walking behind you to see if they return them to you.
3. Dressing really nicely and going into a jewelry store to see how the clerk treats you and then comparing it to going in dressed like a scrub.
4. Putting brown gunk on your teeth before going up and talking to someone to see if they'll tell you.
Stuff like that. You get the picture. Just a social study to observe how people interact publically. Anyone is fair game once they step out their front door, but you can't stalk them or anything. One of the things I'll be graded on is creativity, so it has to be good. Also, it can't involve actually interviewing people or asking them questions. It has to be purely based on observation (to avoid ethical issues).
Anybody have any suggestions?
Labels: Advice Wanted, Not too Cool for School
posted by mags at 8:44 PM
7 Comments:
Go out in a very public place with a stroller and what looks like a baby. Then walk around and smoke.
Oh, this is the PERFECT opportunity for the glue-the-quarter-to-the-ground gag! No, seriously, sorry. Krista has a GREAT idea. I'm trying to come up with something half as good, and I've got nothin'. I don't recommend dropping dollar bills, though, because as a student, I imagine you have a limited number of those. ;)
Man, am I cynical or what?
Hmmm... my only problems with that are that 1) it's too cold for any public place where I'm able to smoke to be good for seeing many other people or to make taking a baby outside realistic, and 2) Wisconsin is very different from CA. I can pretty much tell you no one will say anything.
OK, back to the drawing board.
Maybe do a "Monk", where you walk along touching each light post/parking meter/newspaper box you pass, and gauge people's reactions to you as they approach from the opposite way? It'd have to be an object that occurs frequently enough for someone to notice fairly quickly. Or make a HUGE production of not stepping on cracks?
Yeah, see, mine are lame.
Oh, oh, you can be like those silver painted people in Vegas and San Francisco, except not painted silver! You, know, stand perfectly still, maybe looking/pointing upward, and see what kind of people walk on by, what kind stop and stare at YOU, and what kind stop and look where you're pointing!
Ha! That is the SAME thing Nick said when I told him- Wisconsin is not California, it won't work. :) Okay, I'll keep thinking...
Yeah, for all their talk about being "open" and "compassionate", Californians sure are a nosy, busy-body, judgemental bunch! :)
This is really dumb and not creative, but I thought it was interesting to observe which kids in my class, when after having earned a chance to pick a prize over a few weeks, chose the candy prize or the toy/pen/pencil type prize.
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