The observers paradox

In chapter five of “The Wadsworth Guide to Research” they start off by telling you the different types of research. Those being: observations, interviews, and surveys. They also give a brief idea as to what each one of those is. When talking about observations, they talk about the “observer’s paradox” which is that the mere presence of the observer is affecting the environment that he or she is observing making it a difficult thing to know whether or not to include it into your research. This is something that I have actually run into in the past. I was in a psychology class a few years ago and we were to go out and conduct observations. The trick was that no one was to know that we were conducting the observation otherwise we could throw off the entire swing of things, in return possibly affecting our own grades. There was one day that I was doing my research and I noticed someone from my class in the same room doing the same thing. We made eye contact, but we both did our best to appear normal and stick to our routines. We both knew that this was in fact not a possibility to remain normal when being under known observation, but we continued with the assignment anyway.
Chapter eight was about knowing and understanding what plagiarism is and how to use resources correctly and legally. This is something that is hard to get around sometimes. You know that you have to cite everything that is in your paper that needs to be cited, but it can be difficult to know exactly what is in your paper that needs to indeed be cited. You can also cite too much and be asked to use just your own words about what you thought they were talking about. You will just need to find a happy medium somewhere in-between.