People Observation in a Public Place - Essay Example

People Observation in a Public Place For this paper, I have chosen to write down my people observation based on my visit to a public park last month. At the onset it can be said that parks can be considered as an ideal place for physical activities like walking, jogging or doing exercise which is so very necessary today with most people having a sedentary lifestyle. In general, 80 percent of Americans utilize such public recreational places as stress buster. Parks can also provide perfect opportunity for people to inhale fresh air and get absorbed in the natural beauty both of which can have a profound positive effect on human health and psychology. People also use parks to socialize with friends and can engage in receptive recreation like listening to music or exertive recreation like playing sports or board games. To understand the contributory role of parks, it is necessary to study the kind of people who use them and what activities they perform (Cohen et al., 2007, p.509). In many communities, parks are the only environments where people of all ages can be engaged in physical activities with little or no cost. A systematic observation can provide “contextually-rich information about settings in which physical activity occurs” (McKenzie et al., 2006, p.9). The park that I visited covers a big area with recreation facilities for children like swings and see-saws. The park also has a basketball court and a jogging track. I had visited the place at 4.00 pm on a weekend and stayed for a couple of hours which is an ideal time for people of all ages to find time for relaxation of the mind and body. I noted down the kind of activities that most people were indulging like whether they were just sitting or doing physical activities like jogging, walking or playing. I also related the activities with the age group and race or ethnicities of the people. I also held conversations with a few people to understand their reason for visiting the park and whether they visit it on regular basis. Most people, I have observed, visit the park on weekends to take a break from their routine lifestyle while there are others who try to visit even during weekdays as it provides relaxation after a stressful day. I estimated that around 15 percent of the visitors were above the age of 60 while almost a third of them were children. Majority of the others were adults while about a fifth of the visitors were adolescents. The most common form of activity that I observed was either playing card games, board games like chess, or other sports like basketball and other ball games. Considering that a third of them were children, it was natural that almost all of them were playing or just running to chase one another. The children were the most physically active group followed by the adolescents. Majority of them were playing basketball or other ball games while there were others along with a fifth of the adults who were jogging. Other than this, almost 25 to 30 percent of the adolescents and adults, and almost 65 percent of those who were above 60 were sitting either on benches or on mats on the ground. Remaining of this age is either jogging or doing physical exercise. Next, my purpose was to find out the importance of parks and other public recreation places on people’s lives. I, therefore, held casual conversations with around 60 people from various age groups and racial backgrounds. Almost 40 percent of these people said they visit the park to socialize with other people and it has become a meeting place for regular visitors. Others have said that they use the park for recreation, and find it an ideal place to read books or do physical exercises. However, few of the adults (14 out of the 35 that I held conversations with) said they have visited to accompany their children, and they visit only if their children are eager to come to the park. I also asked them if they would like to see any improvements made in public recreation places. To this, almost 50 percent said they would prefer events and fairs in parks to be held quarterly or semi annually, 27 percent said they would like improved and well maintained jogging tracks, and close to 40 percent prefer more sports facilities for the youth. As for gender distribution, I found that almost 70 percent of those above the age of 60 were male while majority of the adults were female. In the adolescent group I estimated an equal distribution of gender. In the basketball court, there were 45 people playing amongst whom only 13 were girls. Overall, I observed most of the girls were jogging, reading books or making conversations with friends or acquaintances, and majority of the boys were doing physical exercise or playing card games with friends. I also observed that almost 50 to 55 people (adolescents and adults) were listening to music on their iPods, and some of them also brought their laptops on which they were watching games. The common element that I observed among all the visitors is that they were all enjoying and relaxing in their own way. It is clear that people visit parks or other public recreational places to relax their mind and body. Almost 85 percent of the people with whom I held conversations expressed their disappointment over the fact that in urban regions there are few such parks where people of all ages can spend time for relaxation. A common feeling that I observed is that people want more parks and other public recreational places to have facilities to meet physical activity needs of people of all ages. STRUCTURAL-FUNCTIONALISM As I have already stated in my observations that parks are used by people for the purpose of relaxing themselves. This is true for every person regardless of sex, age and their racial and ethnic differences. However, the behavioral pattern of every individual is reflective of his age, gender and social status. I observed that many people indulge in physical exercise or sports (basketball in this case); but majority of them were boys from different age groups. In addition, I have noticed that the white people are more into jogging and playing basketball or any other ball games. In US, population studies have demonstrated that “females, as a group, are less active than males and that ethnic and racial groups tend to be less active than Whites” (Vu et al., 2006, p.81). This can be attributed to the fact that boys are apparently more aggressive than girls. Compared to boys, girls are more (54% against 23%) inclined towards individual physical activities like aerobics and dancing while boys are more (62% against 30%) into aggressive sports like football or basketball (Vu et al., 2006, p.82). I have also observed similar pattern as 70 percent of those who were doing physical exercises in the park were girls while as already mentioned there were only 13 girls in the basketball court out of the 45 people playing. Moreover, I also observed people’s behavioral patterns are also reflection of their educational qualification. There is more aggressiveness in primary school children as I could see in the way they were pushing or hitting each other while playing, adolescents attending high school or college are more compliant in nature. Thus, from the different behavioral patterns of people based on gender, race and social status it can be stated that only by understanding a person’s culture his or her behavior can be studied; “understanding a people’s culture exposes their normalness without reducing their particularity” (Geertz, 1973, p.14). SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM Symbolic interactionism is based on three simple premises: first, human beings behave with others based on meanings they have ascribed to others, second, it is through social interaction that people obtain meaning of others, and third, people respond to others based on how they interpret what others are saying as opposed to directly reacting to what the others are actually saying (Blumer, 1986, p.2). This theory plays a big role when observing different people behaving in different manners in a public place like a park although there can be a common motivation behind every action, which in this case is relaxation. For the children, park has enough space where they can play and run with their peers unlike at home or schools where they rarely get the opportunity to find such open space. Moreover, I observed some children enjoying their time by sitting on the swings while others are playing with balls or other games. Also, there are men and women who are without any company which clearly means that they are here only to spend some time. Then there are adolescents and young adults who consider the park as a place to play sports like basketball or socialize with their friends. The senior age groups are comfortable sitting on benches or mats and making conversation with others. Thus, I observed that different people have different perspectives of how they want to utilize the park. Such perspectives are, most of the times, dependent on age, gender and social status. For instance, while adults can prefer to spend time by listening to music or doing physical exercise, the children are more inclined towards playing games. SOCIAL CONFLICT While parks are usually places where people visit to relax their body and mind, it is also a place where people from different social, economic and racial backgrounds gather together. Therefore, it is not an uncommon scenario to witness social conflicts. It happens when two or more people from different backgrounds oppose each other in order to assert respective perspectives over that of the others. Conflicts can take place between people engaged in same activities or even in different activities. Children while playing with each other very often get into competitive mood and as a result they can behave aggressively with each other. For instance, I observed in the park a couple of children fighting with each other over a ball. Also, the bigger boys who were playing basketball were getting into arguments. Conflicts are more common between people from different racial backgrounds. The white people get into conflicts with the blacks even over apparently minor issues which are more often than not overlooked when there is interaction between people with similar racial backgrounds. CONCLUSION Observing people in a public place can be an extremely learning experience. Even with the common goal of relaxation in parks, it is the social and cultural backgrounds that shape the behavioral patterns of people. Every social group has its own definition of accepted manifestation of behavior like adults and children behave differently just like males and females. References Blumer, H. (1986) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method, Univ. of California Press Cohen, D.A. et al. (2007) Contribution of Public Parks to Physical Activity. American Journal of Public Health, 97(3), 509-14 Geertz, C. (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures, NY: Basic Books McKenzie, T.L. et al. (2006) System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities (SOPARC): Reliability and Feasibility Measures. Journal of physical activity and health, 3(1), 1-19 Vu, M.B. et al. (2006) Listening to Girls and Boys Talk About Girls’ Physical Activity Behaviors. Health Education Behavior, 33(1), 81-96 Read More