Quiet Reading Room Observation

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Observation of public interactions at Bishan Library’s quiet reading room. This report seeks to provide a detailed account on the preparation of an observation study of interactions in Bishan Library’s quiet reading room. Literature regarding the reinforcement and conformity of societal rules through social interaction will be explored. The methods employed in this study will be identified as well as the ethical and practical considerations. Subsequently, the proposed observation will be discussed in an attempt to provide meaningful introspection. Literature Review There is an extensive amount of evidence that suggests societal rules are often encouraged and reinforced by social interactions occurring between individuals. In Erving Goffman’s (1959) seminal text, the presentation of self in everyday life, the dramaturgical perspective is consistent with this line of argument. The society is like a drama or a play in the theatre. Actors are …show more content…

It is situated in the left-hand corner of the building. There are bookshelves just outside the quiet reading room and it makes a perfect cover to observe in the distance in the case of the unfortunate discovery of the observational study in the quiet reading room. The focus here is to establish the rule of the situation which is to remain quiet and to observe what happens if individuals fail to do so. In particular, the reactions of other users in the quiet reading room. Will other users remind or even impolitely tell off the individual? In the case of users reacting to individuals who do not follow the rules in the quiet reading room, this would very similar to how Ye (2015) argues how locals defend their own societal customs and rules and reinforce it against rule breakers which in our case is the individual responsible for disrupting the rule of a quiet reading

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