Chapter 7 Observation

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Chapter 7Observation
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Introduction

• Observation involves looking and unobtrusive
  method.
• Types of observations
• Structured or systematic observation
• Unstructured or naturalistic observation
• Contrived observation
• Participant observation

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Situations for observational research

• Childrens play
• Patterns of play in different environments
• Types of equipment children of different ages
  prefer
• Usage of informal leisure/tourism areas
• Level of use of informal recreation areas
• Observe and count the number of users
• Consider the number of vehicles as well as people

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Situations for observational research

• Spatial and functional use of sites
• Studying the way people make use of a site
• Relate to design and layout of leisure spaces and
  capacity
• By observation, the aspects of space utilization
  can be discovered.
• Case study 7.1 Observation of museum visitor
  behavior study the visitors spatial use of a
  museum

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Situations for observational research

• User profile
• Questionnaire-based profiles can miss vital
  features of the characteristics of the users of a
  site as well as the distinctive usage patterns.
• Preliminary observational research can identify
  such features of the user profile so that
  appropriate questions are included in a
  questionnaire.

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Situations for observational research

• Deviant behavior
• Involve a situation where observation is likely
  to be more fruitful than interviews.
• People are unlikely to tell an interviewer about
  their litter-dropping habits, their lack of
  adherence to the rules in a park, or their beer
  can throwing habits at a football match etc.
• Relates ethical issues such as peoples rights to
  privacy.
• Case study 7.2 Observing riots

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Situations for observational research

• Consumer/incognito testing
• Referred to as mystery shopping
• Research plays the role of incognito
  users/customer/observer
• Ethical and industrial relations issues arise
• Complementary research
• Correct for variation in sampling rates
• More informal observation provides complementary
  material

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Situations for observational research

• Everyday life
• Dated from Britains Mass Observation
  anthropological study of British way of life in
  the 1930s and 1940s by Irving Goffman(1959)
• An anthology of work in the Goffman style
  includes observational studies of such leisure
  activities as pinball, bars, card games and
  restaurants.

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Situations for observational research

• Social behavior
• Used in sociological research to develop ideas
  and theories about social behavior
• Use an interactive, inductive process to build
  explanations of social behavior from what they
  observe.
• Challenge existing stereotypical interpretations
  of events

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Main elements of observational research

• Choice of sites
• Choice of observation points
• Choice of observation time-period
• Continuous observation or sampling
• Count frequency
• What to observe
• Division of site into zones
• Recording observational information
• Conducting the observation
• Analyzing data

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Main elements of observational research

• Choice of observation points
• For structured observation, it may be vital to
  conduct the observation from the same point in
  various study periods
• For unstructured observation, it may be necessary
  to explore and observe from different locations
  within a site.
• Choice of observation time-period
• Due to variations in use of a facility, either by
  time of the year, day of the week, time of day,
  or weather conditions, the choice of time-period
  is important.
• Sampling of time-periods should be considered.

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Main elements of observational research

• Continuous observation or sampling
• Continuous counts vs. spot counts
• Sampling approach is adopted
• Count frequency
• How often should the counts be undertaken?
• Depends on the rate of change in the level of use
  of the site
• Figure 7.6 ? inaccurate information

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Main elements of observational research

• What to observe
• Record the number of people and their position as
  well as their characteristics such as sex, age
  group.
• Observing the addition information makes the
  recording sheets complicated and leads to
  inaccurate data.
• Observe people statically as well as dynamically
• Figure 7.3 and 7.8

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Main elements of observational research

• Division of site into zones
• Record the number of people and their activities
  within zones
• Determined by management concerns and for ease of
  counting
• Recording observational information
• Figure 7.9a and 7.9b provide the examples of
  counting sheet used in structured and
  unstructured observations.

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Main elements of observational research

• Conducting the observation
• For a structured observational project, the
  actual conduct is straightforward.
• Vary the work of counting by switching between
  sites to overcome boredom and inaccuracy
• For a unstructured observational project, more
  demands are placed on the observe.
• Describe what is going on at the site engaging
  with the research questions of the project.

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Main elements of observational research

• Analyzing data
• Usage patterns
• Table 7.1 (Observed use of a park)
• Figure 7.10 (park use pattern)
• Estimating usage numbers
• Table 7.2
• Average of users present, of hours open,
• of use-hours, Average length of stay,
• of users

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Main elements of observational research

• Analyzing data
• Weighting to get better reflection of the
  characteristics of the users of facility,
  weight the result
• Unstructured analysis comprise a set of notes,
  some numbers and some diagrams. ? transfer these
  in a readable form and analyze unstructured data

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Photography and video

• Aerial photography
• When large areas are concerned but access is
  difficult, aerial photography may be the only way
  of obtaining estimates of levels and patterns.
• Still photography
• Convey particular problems and picture paints
  a thousand words.

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Photography and video

• Video
• Record patterns of use of a site for illustrative
  use than analytic purposes
• Provide a useful illustration of before and
  after situations
• Time-lapse photography
• Lies between still photography and video
• Take pictures of a scene automatically every ten
  seconds or every minute
• Show the changing pattern of use of a leisure and
  tourism site

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Just looking

• It is important to use our eyes in research.
• Many studies are based on informal and careful
  observation.
• All useful information is not in the form of
  numbers.
• Careful observation is more appropriate than the
  use of questionnaires or even informal interviews
  in some circumstances.

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