Description
Choose a public place such as a shopping mall, a library, a restaurant, or any other place where you are not participating in the activities you are observing. Record your observations in field notes. Pay attention to and describe the following in detail:
- The setting (layout of the space, arrangement of furniture, decor, “feel,” and so forth),
- The people (describe individuals and groups, detail behaviors)
- The action (what are the relationships between people and/or groups?).
- Then expand the description of one particular person at some point in the observation.
By Day 7, turn in:
- A 4-6 page summary of what you observed.
- A few paragraphs of what you learned about yourself as a researcher.
- Any electronic field notes you took, as an Appendix to the paper (or a brief description of your handwritten notes).
Morrow, S. L. (2005). Quality and trustworthiness in qualitative research in counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(2), 250-260. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.250 [Retrieved from EBSCOhost.]
Creswell, J. W. (2009) Research design: Qualitative & quantitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (3rd ed). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Merriam, S. B., Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation (4th ed). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Explanation & Answer
View attached explanation and answer. Let me know if you have any questions.
Running Head: NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
Non-Participant Observation
Name
Professor
Course
Date
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NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
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Non-Participant Observation
Researchers collect data by observing people's behaviors without actively interacting
with them in an approach identified as non-participant observation. Researchers take a distant
role in understanding phenomenon in a social system or a community while staying separate
from the observed activities (Creswell, 2009). The process can begin with descriptive
observation of the area under investigation, focused observation, and narrowing down to a
portion of the activities, people, or phenomenon of interest. Researchers use non-participant
observation to investigate relationships between elements of choice, which ends in theoretical
saturation. This is the point in research where further observation adds little to the understanding
of the subject being observed. Non-participant observation can be overt or covert. The former
implies that the respondents are aware of the researchers' presence but do not interact, while the
former involves observing research subjects without their knowledge (Morrow, 2005). The
following is a non-participant observation in the mall. The observation will be covert to nonparticipant to minimize the risks of the subjects being affected by the presence of a researcher.
The Setting of the Space
The preferred space for the non-participant observation is the Sky Mall. It has two central
circulations and two anchors on either side designed in dumbbell format. The format allows
customers to flow around the mall in a loop that ends at its starting point. The space forms a
natural pedestrian movement across all shopfronts of the mall, creating a clear sightline and a
welcoming environment (Raouf, 2020). The location of anchor stores creates a gravity that
invites significant foot traffic from the nearby streets. Anchors are positioned at the mall's ends
to ease people's vertical movement from one floor to another. There is a supermarket on the
mall's ground floor and an entertainment center in the basement, a food court with several
NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
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