Scotts Valley Shopping Center Observation

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Through the reevaluation of my observation of Scotts Valley Shopping Center I found that I had a sizable amount of good information which I gained from qualitative methods and quantitative methods within my observation. However while examining this information I also observed that there were multiple factors that could have been analyzed in a better way to obtain finer and more accurate information. One notion that would have aided the recording of my observation is the acknowledgment that my presence as an observer likely affected the subjects. During my observation at Scotts Valley Market’s entrance I made eye contact with multiple people as they entered and therefore can concur that they knew they were being observed. This information likely …show more content…

This bias from my preconceived ideas can be seen through my description at Jack in the Box. I described the Jack in the Box restaurant as “extremely unpopulated”. From an anthropological view I would not have been able to know that this location was “unpopulated” unless I had spent more time there to observe the different levels of populace within the restaurant at different times of the day. Because I was only in the restaurant for about 20 minutes I can concur that I used my own previously formed information about the location to create ideas that the location was generally more populated. I had no evidence from my observation to support this idea and therefore it should not have been included within my observation. Therefore this predisposed information affected how I perceived the location and therefore how I recorded the information and negatively affected my …show more content…

One useful observation is the differences in appearance of people inside of Starbucks compared to the appearance of the man inside of Jack in the Box. I observed that the people at Starbucks generally were physically fit and clean, while at Jack in the Box the single customer within the restaurant was oily, paler, and heavier set. This observation gives me important insight into social aspects of the society within the shopping center. Because the person within Jack in the Box showed less physical well-being than the people within Starbucks I can concur that people of a lesser health tend to buy from Jack in the Box while the more physically fit people go to Starbucks. This difference in resturant preference and health status also gives me insight into the class system of the people within the shopping center. The two groups of people seemed to be separated from one another; and this separation seemed to have a connection to physical appearance. The connection between class and physical appearance is likely the cause of social stratification because the unequal distribution of goods would create a variance in physical appearance in the different classes. This connection is also highly important when understanding the society because by looking at the people’s appearance I am able to further understand the economic

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