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Classroom Observation Paper

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Introduction of Topic and Study Interactions between groups of people at sports events, especially on college campuses, have a large presence and seem to bring groups of people together. A group in sociology can be defined as people who interact with one another and who believe that what they have in common is significant; also called a social group. The audience ranged from children to seniors, from diverse race and age, but all seemed to share multiple norms and behaviors throughout the game that were fascinating to observe. The subjects, though very diverse subgroups in the audience are being studied, held similar norms and behaviors that created a sense of community among the audience, especially when specific obvious behaviors were reciprocated …show more content…

There were chanting and yelling from adults, and discussion and laughing from the younger crowd. As I began observing, I felt a little uneasy because this was a brand new setting to me and I was not sure if there would be any discomfort or ignorance of how to react along with the crowd as I observed. I avoided much interaction with the people around me, to get the most amount of observational content from the people around me, that way I could focus on those seated throughout the bleachers. People related to one another much more so in their own little subgroups more than the audience as a whole. When taking field notes, they were all focused on two or three person interactions at a time. People go to a sports event with friends or their families and rarely ever interact with the entirety as a group. Among all the interactions, female friend groups tended to interact much more frequently than who were observed to be males. Also, the more frequent interactions lasted a longer duration of time than those who seemed female. Approximately, the observed as female, interactions were continuously throughout the game, independent of what might have been going on in the game and lasted 5-10 minutes. Although for those who appeared male, the interactions were brief and for the most part only during breaks in the game. Most of these interactions consisted of nudges or shared "oohs" or energetic reaction to what just happened in the game. Further, the age difference between people seemed to affect the interactions as well. If the interaction was between someone who appeared significantly older than the other, these behaviors were about 10 minutes and very respectable. There was more eye contact and body language showing engagement. While observing the behaviors of a few friends who looked around the same age and younger (approximately 18-22), there was less eye contact and not as much direct body language

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