Examples Of Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic Observation

Are females more polite than males? I am interested in obtaining the answer to this question, because as a child my sister and I have been taught that it is important to be polite to others, because when you are polite, you are treating people with respect. My parent’s logic for enforcing this principle as a success tool for life was formed in this question “why would someone want to help people who disrespect them?” As I thought about this, I agreed, however I have always been curious to see if the importance of being polite is equally important to both sexes? Or do females value the principle of being polite more so than males? To determine the answers to these questions, I will be observing how females and

I picked two specific behaviors considered polite which were door holding and saying please or thank you. Two behaviors were observed in order to do a comparative analysis in order to find out if women displayed polite behaviors in general more often than males, or if it depended upon the behavior itself whether or not males or females exhibited it more often. Door holding was defined as holding the door open long enough for the next person behind or in front of them to grab it in order to enter or exit the building. Observation for the behavior of door holding took place while sitting in Starbucks located in Russell House for one hour. The time was 10:40-11:40 a.m. Students were observed as they entered and exited the building and a tally was made next to the male or female category each time I witnessed a member of either gender hold open the door for the next person. If they failed to hold open the door for the next person a tally was made next to the “did not hold open the door” category next to their gender on the appropriate table. Observation for the use of the words please and thank you was conducted in Gibbes dining hall while sitting next to the registers as students paid for their food. Each time a student said please when making a request, or thank you upon receiving their food a tally was made next to the appropriate gender category. Likewise if they did not

Not holding open doors was rare, however females tended to do so a little more frequently. When it came to saying please and thank you, the roles were reversed and males tended to say it less frequently than females. Therefore my hypothesis was incorrect. Which gender displayed a polite behavior more often was dependent upon which behavior was being observed, which means that females are not necessarily more likely to display polite behaviors more frequently than males. Starbucks allowed me to obtain more data because I observed at a busier time and more people came in thereby giving me a larger sample. I frequently witnessed most males checking behind themselves to see if someone was behind them before they let the door close. My results could be contributed to culture and societal expectations. Men are expected to hold open doors more so than females as a sign of being a gentleman. A few details in my observation that could be improved would be my observation time in Gibbes and to take into consideration that one gender might be more likely to come into a certain location more than the other which could skew my results in their favor. I observed in Gibbes dining hall later in the night when they were not very busy which caused me to not be able to collect as much data. Also more females came into Starbucks during the time I observed there which could have potentially effected my results had enough males not came