Week 1 Video 2 - Possibilities & Observations PDF

Social and Community Psychology Foundational Skills of Contextual Analysis Observations and Possibilities What are you expected to do? • Learn and apply the theory where needed • Learn and follow the methods and skills key to systematic work • Learn from and reverse engineer examples of applicatio...

Social and Community Psychology Foundational Skills of Contextual Analysis Observations and Possibilities What are you expected to do? • Learn and apply the theory where needed • Learn and follow the methods and skills key to systematic work • Learn from and reverse engineer examples of application Skills in the book 1. 2. 3. 4. Making Contextual Observations Analysis with Possibilities Training Avoiding Stereotypes Learning from similar analyses and experts 5. Observing for (5-9): • Resources 5. Observing for continued (5-9): • Exchanges (generalised) • Secrecy and Monitoring 10. Trust as an interplay 11. Strategic Usurpation (unexpected) 12. Five Contexts (12-21) The Five Contexts • Engulfing Forces Men [sic] make their own history, but • Economic Contexts they do not make it as they please; • History Context they do not make it under self-selected • Opportunities Context circumstances but under circumstances • Custom Made Forces existing already, given and transmitted • Cultural Contexts from the past. • Negotiable Forces (Marx, 1852) • Social context (family, friends, acquaintances, strangers) • Maverick Force • Language (3rd Year speciality course) Observations – Everyday versus Contextual • More than just people watching • Just obvious things • Things they want to report to others • Things that are easy to report if asked • Easy descriptions and quick explanations you want to hear • Socially Satisfying Explanations of Human Behaviour (Fundamental Attribution Bias) Image: Guerin, 2017, p.12 Observation Tricks/Rules Look for the event around a singular behaviour (see list) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. See events rather than just objects See over time rather than cross-sectionally, especially in research See with others and compare what you see so you can all learn more Learn the different contexts in this book and practice contextual observation Try not to talk or think about talking when observing. Avoid labelling: As soon as we name the thing or event, we tend to stop observing. 7. ‘Seeing’ through the different contexts 8. When someone is talking in a group, look at the audience mainly. 9. Learn to ‘see’ with possibilities Observation Ethics • Doing lots of observations: you will learn and see the difference. • Do not stare or obviously watch people; do not ever talk to them or ask questions – use your peripheral • Do not record or obviously write notes: needs ethical approval. Do not film under any circumstances; that is illegal • Write down your notes later because writing also stops you from observing • Write your notes without anything that might identify the persons you observed (a key skill in the research working world!) • Spend at least 1 minute on each episode. Observe the event and contexts, not just the behaviour. • Don’t guess what is going on ‘inside’ the person (fiction) Observation Ethics Continued • Avoid friends and family; they will be annoyed • Try and find situations where something is observable other than just talking • Watch events unfold over time and avoid trying to name what is going on too soon; be always surprised by what people do, even if nothing really happens. • Do not just focus on the remarkable, salient, dramatic, or obvious social interactions. Much of our life and social behaviour is the humdrum of doing things together, which deserves observation as much as the more dramatic turn of events. • Do not sit watching people blankly until something amazing happens; that usually means something “nameable” has happened, and we are more after the ordinary, every day “unnameable” social interactions that happen in Example Observation • Inside a home • A man is standing in a kitchen cutting onions • A woman is sitting on a couch nearby, typing on a laptop • Another woman enters the house • The second woman goes to the kitchen, takes over the cutting, and the man walks out of the kitchen • The first woman never looks up from her laptop • Later that evening, the three eat a meal with onions in it, the first woman still working on a laptop while eating We have an observation now what? • To start analysing, we also need to be systematic • There are many real-world, environmental/contextual reasons to do any behaviour Possibilities Training • Not a full analysis – similar to a hypothesis but only in their position • We never get to check them out in the course • Good: You focus on the possibilities based on limited info, not the “right answer” • Bad: We just never know why (sometimes in research it is weird) Why possibilities and not answers • No simple cause-and-effect / stimulusresponse in real life • Lots of contexts that may not even be observed • Stops you thinking about one line of inquiry • Good for research and therapy • Stops you from attributing the cause inside people (FAE) 13 Tricks/Rules for Possibilities 1. Avoid fixating on only one or two possibilities and only the ones that seem obvious 2. Avoid fixating only on possibilities that match common knowledge or everyday understanding Avoid guessing without more details about the context Avoid interpreting the social behaviour in terms of an idea, notion or theory for which there is nothing observable in the context or beyond Be cautious about incorporating what is not present or visible as possibilities unless they can be checked easily Use contradictory or complex possibilities, and do not simplify until you have some observations or other evidence 3. 4. 5. 6. Example: Why did the woman not help cook? Bad Possibilities • The woman is just lazy (Breaks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) • The woman did not notice the cooking (Breaks: 3, 4, 5, 6) • The people are having a fight (Breaks: 3) Good Possibilities • The woman is working on her laptop and may be punished if she stops working • The woman has previously cooked, and it is not her turn • The woman does not cook in these relationships but does other things for this cooking to be provided 13 Tricks/Rules for Possibilities 7. Do not suspend your own personal experiences but suspend thinking that they are exclusive or complete explanations 8. Try to think of the opposite or a contradictory possibility to the obvious one 9. Try to find at least three very different possibilities 10. Filter through each of five contexts as a starting point in analysis to come up with new and unique possibilities: social, cultural, environmental (opportunities), economic and historical 11. Be both critical and creative, simultaneously 12. Have a strong focus on observations 13. Learn from those who have experience and a focus on observations Some more • • • • • • Bad Possibilities These people are brothers and sisters The two people are not really cooking, and the woman isn’t really on a laptop, the woman will help with cooking There was a major life event and they are all just going through the motions without knowing what each other are doing Good Possibilities The woman is working on her laptop and may be punished if she stops working (Economic) The woman has previously cooked, and it is not her turn (Social) The woman does not cook in these relationships but does other things for this cooking to be provided (Cultural / historical) Avoid Stereotypes • What are some stereotypes you can think of? • Social Behaviour is always context-dependent • We have no absolutes and therefore all stereotypes are wrong unless you check • Try and think of the opposite to the stereotype • Get real, direct experience with the people involved that often corrects stereotypes • Give preference to what you see over what you think you (abstractly) Real Research • Observations over time (years sometimes) • Participatory if possible (live it) • Informal talking, not interviews (like real life) • Confirm or reject possibilities • We have discussions as a group • We make supported arguments with the contexts and other data What is expected of you? • You can discuss the difference and importance of systematic observation (compared to just watching) • You can carry out an observation ethically and systematically and produce it for others to read • You understand the importance of possibilities for the understanding of human behaviour • You can carry out and produce possibilities using possibilities training • You can identify breaking the tricks of both observing and possibilities training Social and Community Psychology Foundational Skills of Contextual Analysis Observations and Possibilities