Focused Observation, Essay Example

The aspect that I focused on in conducting an observation of the video segment was how the people in the segment communicated non-verbally to one another. There were three people in the segment, the counselor and the couple composed of the man and the woman. For the counselor, I observed that the main characteristic of her non-verbal communication is nodding. While listening to the responses coming from the couple and even when asking the couple some questions, she would be nodding at almost regular intervals.

For the woman, hand gestures were observed as a dominant non-verbal communication habit. In various parts of the segment, she can be seen gesturing with her hands actively in helping her make her point. This is in contrast to the man. While the man was also shown to make hand gestures, these gestures were more controlled and even monotonous, consisting mostly of opening and closing his hands together. Another non-verbal gesture that is the couple makes is that they often look and smile at one another. This is especially true for the woman. In several times, the woman was observed looking at the man before she answered, as though checking if what she is saying is alright with him. The couple was also observed to nod at one another’s statements to questions asked by the counselor. Signifying that they somewhat understand one another’s position in the dilemma.

Compared to the open observation, I was able to gather more detail with the focused observation. In focused observation, I learned to filter out other stimuli and focus on the research question I selected. The initial research question gave me a clear direction on what to look for and I found that very helpful.