Classroom Observation

Methods

Participants:

648 people were observed in total (approximately 1,900 males & approximately 1,600 females). Ages ranged 1- 55+, however 53.5 percent (355 people) were between the ages of 20-25, and 42.9% (285 people) were between the ages of 15-20. These were the top two age demographics. The ages of people observed were slightly positively skewed towards younger participants. Ethnicity of people observed included Caucasian (88.6%; 588 people), African-American (43.1%; 286 people), Hispanic/Latino (17%; 113 people), Asian/Pacific Islander (16.3%; 108 people), Indian/South Asian (5.9%; 39 people), Native American (1.1%; 7 people), ‘Other’ (2.6%; 17 people), and ‘No Answer’ (0.6%; 4 people).

Materials:

Student experimenters from Dr.

Weast’s Research Methods and Statistics 2002 class entered their observed data onto a standard spreadsheet following their observations. The data were then compiled in a master class data file by Graduate Teaching Assistants from the class.
Procedure:
Class experimenters were directed to observe at least five different outdoor human activities over a period of one week.

The experimenters were told to be as discrete as possible making their observations. However, if a student experimenter participated in an activity which they were observing, it was indicated that this was satisfactory, as well. In their field notes, student observers recorded: the activity, the number of people involved in the activity, the gender of the participants, the ages of the participants, the ethnicities of the participants, the location of the activity, the time of day of the activity, any activity comments (further detailing the setup of the activity), and also any observation comments (detailing what happened with the activity under observation). The number of participants in the group was noted from 1-10, and anything larger than 10 participants was noted as 10+. Observations were made either on-campus or off-campus from the University of Cincinnati Main Campus, and could be made observing people whom the researcher was either familiar with or not. The observers located an activity (if they weren’t participating in it), and quietly observed the activity for at least a few minutes of time before leaving. There was no constraint on time of day of observation, however most observations were made between 11am –

9pm.
Results
Pearson product moment correlation coefficients were calculated for three pairs of variables. The pairs were: the number of persons in a group with the number of males in a group, the number of persons in a group with the number of females in a group, and the time of day of the activity with the location of the activity (either on-campus or off-campus). There was a significant positive correlation between the number of persons in a group and the number of males, r = .611, n = 648, p = .000. There was also a significant positive correlation between the number of persons in a group and the number of females, r = .546, n = 648, p = .000. Overall, there were moderately strong, positive correlations between each gender and number of persons in a group. The data suggest that as the number of people in a group increases, the number of males increase. Female numbers increase as the group increases size as well, but not as strongly as with males. No significant correlation was found between the time of day of the activity and the location of the activity.