Ninth Edition CoverGraziano & Raulin
Research Methods (9th edition)

Making Observations
(Exercises)

  1. Cheating in college examinations appears to be a continuing and perhaps growing problem. As a researcher you want to learn how much cheating is done during examinations, how the cheating is carried out, who does the cheating, and how successful it is. You are going to study this in your school by using a combination of unobtrusive and participant observational methods, and you realize there are ethical issues involved in such research.
    A. Develop and describe your methods of observation.
    B. Explain how you will guarantee the rights of the students who will be observed.

  2. Think of five or six research problems in which unobtrusive and/or participant observation procedures would be useful, and perhaps even be the best methods to use.

  3. For each of the following situations, identify at least one unobtrusive way of measuring the critical variable.
    • You would like to bring people into the laboratory for one task, while you are really interested in noticing how they get to know a stranger.
    • You want to see how people respond to a situation where it appears that someone needs their help and what factors affect their likelihood of helping.
    • You want to see how people respond to insulting remarks from someone they barely know.
    • You want to know if men behave differently toward a woman they meet in a bar depending on how much she appears to have drunk.
  4. For each of the following situations, identify at least one participant observer way of measuring the critical variable.
    • You want to understand the process by which some politicians are able to negotiate acceptable compromises, whereas other politicians are unable to get people to agree.
    • You are interested in understanding how high pressure sales people approach their job and what techniques they use.
    • You want to study the coaching techniques of a particularly successful college basketball coach.
    • You want to understand how children respond to a placement in a day care center.

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