Sociology Experiment

For this assignment, you are going to go out into a social setting that you are unfamiliar with and document what you are seeing. You will be conducting an ethnography and/or a participant observation. For example, this should be a busy environment or a place where people gather. It can be a church, a library, the mall food court, a sporting event, a fitness club or an ethnic restaurant, i.e. Thai, Mexican, etc. and write down your observations. You may choose to go anywhere where people are that you have not been before. Some considerations for your note taking are:

• Write down where you were, the people’s behaviors and the rules of the environment, etc.
• What are the social norms from the interaction that you have observed?
• What statuses or roles are associated with what you have observed?
• How are the people behaving? Are they in groups, are they alone?
• If they are in groups what do you notice about the group dynamics?
• What is the collective behavior in the environment or was there social control or both, in what ways was this behavior exhibited?
• How many people were present? What are key behaviors cues that are associated with the environment?
• How has society shaped the behavior of the individuals in that environment?