Читать книгу Demystifying Research for Medical and Healthcare Students - John L. Anderson - Страница 46

Mary Sissons conducted her classic study of interactions between people of different social classes in Paddington Station in London (Sissons, 1971). Thinking of all the happy hours I have spent waiting for trains there between 1967 and now makes me realise how much it has changed. It used to be much larger inside before the shops and restaurants were added, and therefore there were many more offices overlooking the vast station concourse. It was the perfect place for ‘people watching’. So, Mary was able to set up her cameras in the offices overlooking the station concourse. Of course, this sort of study raises many more ethical issues now than it did then – see Reece and Siegal’s (1991) book on the ethics of social research.

She hired an actor who dressed up in one of two different roles. In his ‘middle‐class’ role he dressed up in manual worker's clothes and spoke and behaved as though he was ‘working‐class’. In his ‘middle‐class’ role, he was dressed like a businessman and talked and behaved as though he was ‘middle‐class’. He approached 80 people and asked them if they could tell him the way to Hyde Park (which is a five‐minute walk from the station). For half, he was in his ‘middle‐class’ role and for half, he was in his ‘working‐class’ role. The interactions were filmed from the offices and audio‐recorded by a hidden microphone carried by the actor. Once the interactions had ended, a researcher approached the ‘subjects’, explained the study to them, interviewed them and obtained their consent for their participation in the study.

She found that middle‐class to middle‐class interactions went more smoothly than any others. Instant rapport was more likely, the interactions lasted longer, there was more smiling and there was a definite ending. This experiment was used by the Open University and the BBC as a featured example of Field Research. Google it! Watch the video.