Psychology Naturalistic Observation. Help please!?

Question

I have to do one of those as a Naturalistic Observation

Here are the directions:

You must observe something in its natural habitat and avoid being detected by the subjects you are observing. Your goal is to detect a natural behavior pattern. Formulate a hypothesis for a pattern of behavior. Go to a location of your choosing and observe for at least half an hour taking notes on the particular pattern of behavior you have chosen.

Ex: (you may not use this example) Pattern of behavior: Women go to the bathroom more than men in public places. Naturalistic observation: Observing the number of people that enter the restrooms at the mall paying attention to gender.

You also have to go up in front of the class and talk about it.

I am stuck in finding an interesting observation to do, like what to do it on. Anyone have any awesome idea i should do it on. I was thinking doing it on water fountains, Men v.s. Women. Well thanks a lot I really appreciate your ideas (:

Answer 1

Did you accidentally post this question twice....?

I don't know what you focus on, but communication is always a great topic - and offers you loads of background reading to formulate a hypothesis. Observing without "being detected" might be tricky, though.

A mall is a great place to observe people and not being detected taking notes, so your idea might be good. And gender comparisons, like communication, give you a variety of background reading. How about sitting down at a cashier in a supermarket, comparing what women/men shop? As in, items in carts? You won't be able to count, obviously, but if you create three categories (less than five items, five to ten items, more than ten items) a quick glimpse would be enough. Or compare WHAT they buy? Think about healthy food! Create a table with columns "fruit", "vegetables", "alcohol", "sweets" (those four might even be enough) and tick who buys what. People won't be influenced by you taking notes because by the time you see what they bought, they have already finished their shopping. You might want to talk to the supermarket manager and briefly explain your homework in order to not being interrupted by staff. ;)

Your hypothesis might then go along the lines of, "Women do more family shopping than men", "Women buy healthy food more often than men", "Men buy alcohol more frequently than women" etc. As this is just a quick homework, your "research" certainly won't be representative, but then again that isn't the point. :)

[Women use bathrooms more often because their bladders are smaller, so I don't really see how that example ties in with a psychology course, tbh.]  

Answer 2

Go to a busy intersection of people. Place some type of problem in the normal pass way and observe how different people handle the problem. You can seperate by gender, race, age or any number of categories.  

Answer 3

You could observe any organism, unless humans are specified. Here's a human subjects idea:

You fountain idea:

More men than women toss coins in a fountain.

Men tossing coins

Women tossing coins

Something more complicated:

Proportionately, more people with children eat food near a fountain (or some other location)  

Count how many individuals or couples,with, and how many without children buy food.

Discuss results in terms of

Individuals (no childre)

Individuals (With children)

Couples (no children)

Couples (with children)

Mixed groups (with children)

Mixed groups (without children)

By definition, mixed groups are identified as constituting one male or female with two of the opposite s*x.

If you want real detail, add in Large same s*x groups with/without children.