Reflection on Observation 1 and 2

Reflecting on my observation activity 1 and 2, I noticed that it is really a challenging job to keep myself, as an observer with an unbiased, objective, and neutral perspective. With my first activity observing strangers, I was more inclined to be “attracted” by people with characteristics which I may be more familiar with. For example, the crying baby and the mother may be related to the fact that I am a mother of two young kids myself. Also, my husband is a professional working in the bank and therefore, he wears suits very day. All those similarities unconsciously but actually consciously decide why I chose them and how I observe those strangers.

During my first observation with strangers, I am more dependent on making observations with my  senses such as vision and sound. Also, when I was observing strangers, I noticed myself being more descriptive in describing their features with age, ethnicity, gender, height, color of cloth wearing, etc. In contrast, when observing my son, I did not mention anything nor provide any information for readers to be able to portrait his image. Since I have known my son so well, I take some information for granted and unconsciously assumed that my readers would have the same background knowledge about my son as I do.

The other point I noticed is that it was not easy to pull myself out as an “outsider” when observing my son. During the observation, my son was trying to initiate an interaction and start a conversation with me. I found it was difficult for me not to respond to him. Also, it was much easier to make assumptions and interpret his behaviour/actions based on my perceptions. For example, the song he was singing, “The Wheel on the Bus”, if I don’t know him, I probably would not have known that it was his favourite song. Therefore, I probably would not have known that he was in a good mood.

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