Catholic Church Observation Examples

As I mentioned in my first observation, I went to the St. Paul Catholic Church located in 2127 W. 22nd Pl, Chicago, IL 60608. The church is a public place where everyone are welcome, there are no limitations at all. It normally does not require inform consent from the participants. (Gordon, P. 70) The things I observed were pretty broad at that time, such as the church’s architecture, designs, people’s race as well as my feeling inside the church. During my initial observation, I basically jotted down everything I saw, feel and smell because I did not want to miss out any important details. As a result, my first observation was not concentrated. At the beginning, I thought I was pretty familiar with the things happening at the church because I was brought up Catholic. However, after I carefully did my observation the first time, I realized that I left out a lot of details in the past. Observation is a good research method to study an individual’s behavior as they are not conscious that they are being watched, it helps a researcher observe one’s naturally occurring interactional patterns. (Gordon, P. 90)

My research question is aimed to find out whether race and age affect the location people choose to sit during the mass. The research question is “Do people of various race and age influence their choices of where they want to sit in the church and their behaviors during the mass?” The independent variables are race and age; while the choice of sitting area and behavior are the dependent variables. Furthermore, my hypothesis for this observation is “If people see other church members of their own age and race, they tend to stay together instead of mixing up with other