Characteristics Of A Naturalistic Observation In A Grocery Store

Observation Paper: Grocery Store

EDUC 600

Week 6

On Sunday, November 29 around 5:00 in the evening, I did a naturalistic observation in a grocery store. This observation was naturalistic because I observed the behavior of individuals of the grocery store going about their routine with no intervention (Feldman, 2014, pp. 32). There were many developmental stages from childhood, young, middle and late adulthood.

While observing these many different stages, I noticed everyone had characteristics of personality and social development. Most people would acknowledge others with carts and make room or move them in order for the other individuals to see the products on the shelves. Most would say this was just being “polite”, but

The late adulthood scenario I observed was an elderly woman who was capable of walking around the store to purchase what she wanted, but needed help by someone who may have been her aid. I thought about “plasticity” in this scenario because the woman was still going to the grocery store, the environmental factor, and walking around to find her produce and pay for it, her intellectual skills, (Feldman, 2014, pp. 560). This woman was able to move the cart, but needed help with knowing where she was going. She also was able to pay, but needed help with where to swipe her card. In late adulthood, the more intellectual abilities are practiced, the more they are able to continue doing them. Though the woman was able to do all this, she still needed help from another and that may be because she is going through a transitional period where she will eventually no longer be able to do the grocery store

As mentioned before the individuals would move out of the way when they saw someone coming with a cart or make room for others in the aisles. These are appropriate actions taken from a social perspective, but some individuals may not act as appropriate by not moving and being more in the way than out of it. These actions can cause stress because of the overwhelmed feelings of being surrounded by so many people and by moving around a big cart full of items through the store. As I was walking around with my roommates, we were all feeling stressed because we wanted to do the trip as quickly as possible, but with so many people at the store that was not how it went. With carts everywhere, it was impossible to get through the aisles and with it being close to dinnertime everyone was probably trying to get their trips done just as fast as we were. When we were closer to check out, the more overwhelmed it became with waiting in line and people weaving in and out of the lines because we were the one’s in the way now. From what I observed, the stress developed during times of frustration because of inappropriate actions of individuals and the time it came to check