The Art of Ethnographic Observation (A Deep Dive into Human Behavior)

 

Ethnographic observation is a research method rooted in anthropology, which is a research method that can gain a unique understanding of human behavior, cultural and social interactions, and is very suitable for descriptive and immersive studies in the natural environment of people. In order to uncover the deep meanings and patterns that shape communities and societies, it is studied in depth from the surface level. In this blog post, we will discuss what I have learned about ethnographic observation.

Commonly used in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, design and market research, this research tool is unlike research tools such as experiments or interviews. This involves studying behavior in real-world contexts. Compared to other research tools, while this takes a lot of time, if we are studying people here, the person or group of people we are studying should not be informed about it. If it is said why, that person or group of people will change their behavior by being informed like that (it is called Hawthorne effect). But there are research ethics accepted by the world that any researcher or research group should follow. Research ethics also affect this ethnographic observation. If we observe a public place as a researcher, we should never publicize the personal information (name, photos, etc.) of the external people who support the research / the people we observe. Similarly, if we observe a private place, we must get permission from the head of that place. There, too, no personal information of the people observing should be made public.

An open mind is one of the qualities we should have in ethnographic observation. A successful observation can never be done without an open mind. That's why when we don't have an open mind, we tend to judge many things. But in ethnographic observation, judgment should not be made. All we have to do at all times is to observe our goal. In resorting to judgement, we may miss a lot of information.

For example, imagine this photo;

 What do you see here?

 what made you mention it like that?

You must have thought of a "water bottle". You felt that way because of your past experiences. You have studied a water bottle well. And you used a water bottle. That is, you have associated a bottle of water well, so you must have thought it was a bottle of water. But how is this bottle a "water bottle" itself? May be a vessel used to hold/storage another liquid. There too, you may have thought of it as a water bottle based on your past experiences. And if you get to touch it or lift it, you can roughly identify the material it is made of.  That, too, is due to your past experiences with those ingredients.

I used this example to illustrate an open mind. I also learned about open mind through this example. If you see it in the way mentioned above and note it as a bottle of water in your observing, then there has been no observe in an open mind. Then, as mentioned above, the raw materials it is made of, the materials that can be stored in it, etc. will be missed. Therefore, an open mind should be observed during ethnographic observation.

And in ethnographic observation, we must have curiosity for the research we are doing. Any observation can be studied in depth by being curious. There will be a desire for it. Each observation raises two questions: "why" and "how". It allows us to see small details, patterns and behaviors that seem insignificant, but convey deep meaning. And despite being curious, we should never label what we study in our observation as "good", "bad", "strange" or "normal". Always observe what the behavior means in their context. And that is why we should always embrace ambiguity. Sometimes some things in our observation will not make sense immediately. But being curious will allow you to observe more rather than jumping to conclusions too quickly.

According to the things mentioned above, one of the qualities that the person observing has is patience. A successful observation can never be made without patience. Patience is very important in things like observing for a long time and paying attention to small details.

What can be done through an observation can be changed even if it is something we currently have. For example, you can think of a device or object that you love in your house or in your room.

Why did you say you love it?

Think about the reason for it / your connection with it. After a deep study, you decide whether you are in love with him or not. Maybe after this observation your love with it will change.

When conducting ethnographic observations, we often use multiple "lenses" to analyze and interpret what we see. These lenses help us gain a better understanding of the people, behaviors and contexts we observe. Those lenses are physical, emotional, cultural and social. A physical lens can understand the practical, material, or functional aspects of a behavior. Also, Emotional lens can be used to study the emotional dimension of action and behavior by using facial expressions, speaking behavior, and mood, etc.. Cultural and social lenses can be used to understand the deep cultural meanings in behavior as well as observe how social relationships shape behavior and decision making. Thus, by using lenses, we can get a complete understanding of the way we observe. Also, avoid oversimplifying or misinterpreting behaviors by focusing on only one perspective, and individual actions can be related to wider social or cultural patterns.

As a novice in the use of ethnographic observation, my mentor directed me to study a few segments of a few films to learn about the research tool. Because why, a good film is made after a lot of observation, and they include those lenses in the performance to show the audience the lenses mentioned above. Therefore, an ethnographic observation can be easily done through a film without paying much time to attention like in normal society.

Another activity we got here is to imagine ourselves as a designer and try to uncover the deep story they are trying to talk about "love" in these shown movie clips, what has been communicated behind the dialogues, what and how they use objects are central. to the seen, gestures and behaviors, what non-verbal cues that reflect love, how did the space use, what rituals and norms and what are the sensory things like sound, light, textures etc... to study. After that, they were told to observe how the discovered facts are related to several films.

There, we used ethnographic observation to examine the relationship between the concept of "love" in those few film parts.

Another reason for the increase in the time taken for an ethnographic observation as mentioned above is to study the data collected at the end of the observation, understand the existing patterns and analyze them to get accurate information. This will also take a long time.

The tool of Ethnographic Observation helps to discover the true story of people's daily life. By using this research tool, we can make our research very successful and enrich our understanding of human experience.