Tag Archives: observation

Attempt at conditioning

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Last semester, my close friends and I spent a lot of nights staying up late.  Staying up till 3 am maybe watching a movie, or just talking.  Eventually it caught up to us and we would feel tired throughout the whole day, but we would still just sit around.  Soon enough we became more productive during the time we stayed up late.  We would bring in some work, and many of us had similar classes, so we would be able to work together and help each other out as we worked.  But the only problem with this was one of our friends would still decide to not do any work.  This problem is still occurring now, and we are trying to help our friend start.  During past few weeks, due to a lack of difficult work, we all just hung out, not doing much.  But now that some exams are coming up, everyone started to study more.  We attempted to get our friend to study by having everyone around our friend study.  We would all be quiet, and focused, hoping that would persuade our friend into wanting to study too, since it would be like a last option for our friend.  Our friend’s mind was still set on not doing work, even though there is an exam coming up very soon.  We all want to have fun, but we are too worried that our friend may get stuck behind because of the lack of effort our friend puts forth into studying.   A big part of the problem we have with getting through to our friend is the fact that our friend is often alone doing whatever, so if our friend were to get bored of us studying, then our friend can leave and do whatever.  Hopefully we can get our friend conditioned to study with us when we study, especially since we can all help him with at least one of his classes.

Naturalistic Observation

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I will be writing my blog on the concept of naturalistic observation. This concept is a research tool in psychology which is used to observe people or animals in their natural setting. Psychologists use this method to try to get the most detailed information about their subject. Although this research tool seems effective, there are advantages and disadvantages to this method. One advantage is that the person or animal being observed will act naturally in their own environment; they will feel comfortable. However, a disadvantage is that if the person or animal knows they are being watched, they will change their behavior.

I have experienced naturalistic observation taking place in real life and saw its disadvantages. In high school, my teachers would occasionally be evaluated during a certain class period on how they taught and how the students took in the information. During the evaluation, the department chair for the subject being taught would sit in on one of the teacher’s classes and observe how they taught and take notes. This would exemplify the teacher being in their own natural environment. It would seem that the teacher is comfortable in their own environment and would act as if it was any normal day. However, that was not the case. The day before my teacher would be reviewed, he or she would inform us that their superior would be sitting in on our class tomorrow. So, my teacher would tell us to ask a lot more questions and just pay attention. They would also inform us to not use our phones or talk.

The fact that my teachers would tell us to act a certain way and inform us that their superior is sitting in on a class to evaluate displays the disadvantage of naturalistic observation. Even though the teacher is in his or her own classroom, they still know that they are being observed and they will change their behavior and tell the class to change theirs as well just to get a good review. This is naturalistic observation in action.