Unobtrusive and Participant Observation

Many field studies rely on either unobtrusive or participant observation because these methods minimize measurement reactivity. In each of the following field situations, devise at least one method of unobtrusive measurement and one method of participant observation.

For example, if you were interested in studying the degree of communication among coworkers, you could count the number of email messages that are exchanged as an unobtrusive measure of communication and you could arrange your desk so that you could observe how frequently the coworkers talked with one another over the course of the day. See how creative you can be in identifying clever ways of measuring the phenomena of interest in the following scenarios.

You are interesting in studying the stress-related behavior of college students at the beginning of the semester and during final exams week.
You want to study the impact of terrorism on the religious behavior of people.
You want to study the impact of the large portable signs that show motorists their speed on the way they drive in other parts of the city.
You want to see the effects of guest speakers in class on the reading and movie viewing habits of high school or college students.
You want to evaluate the impact of a media blitz on the popularity of local parks.
You have recently established a web site for an organization that you belong to, and you want to evaluate what elements of the web site are most helpful to your members and to the community.
You live in a small community that has recently experienced a major industrial loss (a plant closing), and you want to document the impact that the loss is having on the community.