Free Custom «Observation Project» Essay Paper

This project was set to be an observation project done by making a keen observation on people's behavior. The project was done in campus hence those under observation were students; both males and females. In this project, gender was taken as the independent variable while joywalking was taken as the dependent variable. Therefore, gender was the presumed case while joy walking was the presumed effect. In this field trip, we predicted that the masculaine gender wolud prefer to joy walk while on the field as compared to the masculaine gender. To ascertain this through operationalization, the study was to focus on the number of males and females in the field, an avarage of the ages, the hobbies especially the ones that can be expressed in the filed and the general behaviors such as sociability and the level of attachment to others. Research methods that were employed in this study included; observation,sampling and informal interviews (meant to find more about the people under obsrvation).

The bivariate hypothesis of this study analyzed the relationship between jaywalking and gender in that the masculaine gender have a lot of energy and in many instances especially those of student age would   tend to engage in joywalking to dispense their energy. This is different from the femine gender who are characterized as emotional and not so energetic as men hence while in the field would not let anything that they consider not of substance take their time except for some small percentage. It was important to take this study to come to terms with general behaviors of students of the two genders as far as walking for leisure is concerned. Understanding this is very significant for an institution or lecturers in knowing the manner in which students would chose to spend their quality time, what goes through the mind of student when joy walking and the impact it has on them in relation to their academic exellence. This source of inspiration for  developing this hypothesis was to understand how best students can made to produce somethingt constructive from the time that is available for them to joy walk while in campus or in any field of studies.

Methods of research

1. Sampling

This observation project was set in De Neve Cross Walk on16th April, 2012 for a time of thrity minutes. The first unstructured observation began at exactly noon since this was the time when most of the students  were free to joywalk while some were headed for lunch. This project was done in company of three other friends making us four in number. Being the team leader, I was obliged to be the one designating my friends to the areas where they were to take their observation just within the range and gather observation reports from them for sampling. They were to observe the movement of all students in the vicinity leaving out only recognizable non-students even though at time it was difficult identifying non- students in the vicinity. Therefore, it is important to understand that we also took note of the colors of the shirt every student was putting on as well as the color of their bottom and this was to be compared against those who J-walked and those who backpacked. Those who walked for GO signal were also noted to ensure accuracy of data. To ensure authenticity of the data without having any influence on the outcome, we came to a unanimous agreement that every person would stand on a position away from another and there would be no communication between the members of the groupd up to the time duration of the observation would have elapsed. We considered these procedures good and effective since they could ensure consistency of the results as well as reality of data brought about by every member of the group. It was also to enhance truthfulness among members.

1. Dependent variable

The dependent variable used in this case is joy walking. It comes out to be the most suitable especially when taking a look at the behavior of students in this specific location of study. Joy walking also apply best in the context of the two genders in that there is a specific gender that likes and loves joy walking than another because of a particular reason. Moreover, it also applys best for students since they normally joywalk to relieve themselves after taking time studying in class. The whole operationalization  was on the avarage age of students, the color of their clothing especially shirts and bottoms and the once who began walking before the go signal for the start of the study in order to ensure minimal errors. Actually, operationalization ensured efficiency in sampling and interpretation of data.

1. Independent variable

The used variable in this case is gender. It beceme the best choice for the group since campus is made up two genders  and all activities done affect both males and females hence they fit in best expecially when considering an acitivity done after academic work. The way of operationalization happened was by considering the genders independently and categorizing them in term of the colour of clothes they put on.