Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic observation involves recording subjects' naturally occurring behavior while they are in their natural environment. This experiment revolves around this type of observation. Specifically, it involves the observation of the various human dyads (male-female, male-male, female-female,) social interaction, within in a public environment. Focal points of observation included conversation space (distance between individuals heads,), and body language.

All behaviors were observed in an unobtrusive manner.

Introduction

The acceptable distance for a conversation between adults is greatly affected by the cultural background of the participants and the gender of those involved (Hall, 1966, Reidhead, Good, & Stopka, 1984; Sommer, 1969). Previous work has shown that, "observational studies in real life situations have found that individuals in Arab and Latin American countries, in general, stand significantly closer to one another during conversations than do Americans and Northern Europeans (e.g., Hall, 1966; Sanders, Hakky, & Brizzolara, 1985). Within the American culture, studies have shown that male-female dyads stand closest, female-female dyads are intermediate, and male-male dyads are most distant (e.g., Baxter, 1970; Sommer, 1962).

Based upon these former studies, observation was undergone in roughly the same manner, with a new hypothesis in mind. The hypothesis is that when engaged in conversation, male-female dyads make more of overt effort to appear interested in conversation. Since actual conversing was not overheard, and distance between individuals was virtually irrelevant, the significant variables in this study a...

... middle of paper ...

...s not determined. It could possibly rely solely upon an individual's awareness of how attracted they are to the other individual.

One possible source of error for this experiment could be sexual preference. This study does not take into account for any type of homosexuality. However, it is reasonable to surmise that the same hypothesis will hold true for homosexual- same gender dyads.

References

1. Baxter, J.C. (1970). Interpersonal spacing in natural settings. Sociometry, 33, 444-456

2. Hall, E.T. (1966). The Hidden Dimension. Garden City: Doubleday.

3. Sanders, J.L., Hakky, U.M., & Brizzolara, M.M. (1985). Personal space amongst Arabs and Americans. International Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 8, 360-393.

4. Sommer, R. (1962). The Distance for comfortable conversation: A further study. Sociometry, 25, 111-116.