Observation Field Notes On Behavior

Observation Field Notes
Methods
Observing people using alcohol was quite simple. The game plan was basically visit a bar and start taking notes. I brought a small spiral notebook to mark down times and little notes. However, motivations behind binge drinking was my topic, not people consuming alcohol. So, observing people binge drinking was harder than I anticipated because the little time I spent observing, as well as not knowing how many drinks one had already consumed prior to the start of my observations. Due to my busy schedule, I had to break my observation sessions into three nights. I chose to conduct my observations at the Main Street Pub, Peppino’s Pizzeria, and Buffalo Wild Wings during the weekend in order to ensure that I would be observing people consuming alcohol.

03.31.16: Main St. Pub Allendale, MI 49401

9:39 pm: Arrived at the Main Street Pub to start my observations.
As I entered the pub, I noticed business was usual, that is, both the dinner side and bar side were at capacity. I quickly walked pass the waitresses and entered the bar area, which was completely packed. There were people eating dinner, watching sports, playing on the billiard table, and of course, sitting at and around the bar drinking and laughing. I walked around the bar trying to locate a table for myself, but they were all occupied. I stood there for a minute or so regretting my decision to conduct observations at the Pub at the beginning of a weekend. Finally, after a short awkward wait, a table opened up in the corner of the bar, so I rushed over and got a seat.
9:47 pm: Ordered myself a drink.
I decided to order myself a Corona in order to draw less attention to myself.
9:50 pm: Two guys, possibly in their late 20’s or...

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... once I entered the locations to start my observations, I was surprised they were all pretty busy. Though the observations seemed easy, in reality, they were more difficult to conduct. This is because there were a lot of people consuming alcohol, which often made it difficult to constantly remain in visual contact.
Secondly, observing people binge drinking was the moist difficult. Because the definition I used for binge drinking was “Drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks, on the same occasion, on at least 1 day in the past 30 days (NIH),” it was quite difficult to find people drinking that much in only an hour. Furthermore, I could not determine the amount of drinks consumed by those who were already at the bar prior to my arrival. With that being said, I decided to observe people and their surrounding while consuming alcohol and not worry about binge drinking.