Social Work Paper (Research Method)

Group Assignment: Inductive research can be easily conducted by students. Choose a common social activity (e.g., grocery shopping, eating in a restaurant or cafeteria, waiting in line at a bank, courting rituals at a dance club). Members of the group should go into the field for an hour and observe how people conduct themselves in this activity. Members should do this separately (or at least in sub-groups of no larger than two members). Students should be attentive to patterns that emerge from the observation, but should try not to engage actors or make their observation too obvious (as this may bias results!) After their hour of field work, students should meet to discuss the patterns they observed. During the next class period, each group should present empirical generalizations based on these observations. If possible (but not required), students might then find some theory or research that corresponds to these generalizations and report as to whether their observations make sense given pre-existing research or theory. Each group member must provide a brief (one page) summary of his/her observations that was brought to the group for discussion. Groups will present their information in class.