Evaluating the controlled observation

I conducted a controlled observation to monitor behaviour and reveal truths about youth crime in the Banstead Area. I chose this method over natural participant observations because I was in full control and I did not have to wait around until someone was willing to participate. This is effective because with controlled observation I was able to sit the candidate down and show them what I am expecting of them. I also chose this method over participant observation because with this you can be accused of forcing them to participate which could lead to people not believing my findings.

Darren Brown used a behaviour observation to study how many people follow the rules around them. During the ‘Trick or Treat’ episode on Channel 4 Darren Brown placed a hole on the wall with the sign “don’t look through the hole”. Darren Brown would then observe from afar and see whether people would look through the hole. These people were measured on looking at the hole, talking about the hole and obviously looking through the hole. This gave me the foundations in which I could create my own controlled observation. I wanted to observe young people behaviour and their willingness to follow the rules. Therefore, I would place a useless red button on the table of The Beacon Sixth Form with the words “don’t press” on it. I would then observe from a table hidden away and see if anyone would press it. I would observe people focusing on the button, people talking about the button and people pressing the button.

Reliability of my checklist was key in order to successfully understand the results I would get from this observation. One in which I could prove the reliability of my checklist was to train someone on my table about what I am doing and how I am measuring this. This is effective because if both of us get the same results then it is more reliable because it shows that both of us understood what we were researching. Another example that might affect the reliability of my checklist is the wording of the observations. For example, I could monitor looking at button and staring at the button. This affects the reliability because it difficult for people to distinguish the difference between looking and staring. I could improve this by rewording the checklist.

In future I can make my research more valid by ensuring that I have no biases when observing the people. For example, the main bias I had during the observation is that I thought the young people would just press the button without even thinking in order to make their mates laugh. This is effective because some of the people may not have done that and due to that the research may be more bias to the fact they pressed because they thought it was funny.

The strengths of this type of observation is that it is completely controlled. This is effective because I will be in control and I will not have to wait for people to participate. The disadvantage of this type of research is that I can be accused for forcing the matter on to people which can be seen as bias.

With the research I gathered I found that a lot of people kept talking about the button which was rated as 5. I found that actually very few people actually pressed the button with an overall rating of 2. I can conclude from this that not every teenager will commit crimes. This is effective because it lets me know that I shouldn’t automatically associate teenagers with crime.

This research has furthered my documentary by supplying me with more research. This research will be used in my documentary to help show what teenagers get up to in their spare time.