Words from the Webmaster

Dear all,

Once again, another two batches of students have completed the course on the basics of qualitative social research. This time round, some selected participant observational research done by the students are put up. At the same time, students' video demonstrations of the various persuasion techniques in social psychology are included. Hope you enjoy them!

Regards

Henry Khiat

Persuasion Techniques: Technique based on Scarity

To limit the sup­ply of a prod­uct or ser­vice in some way to increase scarcity of an offer. Because it’s a proven fact that scarcity sells. It’s that age­less law of sup­ply and demand. The less the supply is, the greater the demand will be.

http://www.michelfortin.com/use-scarcity-to-sell-not-scare/

Persuasion Techniques: Bait and Switch

In retail sales, a bait and switch is a form of fraud in which the party putting forth the fraud lures in customers by advertising a product or service at an unprofitably low price, then reveals to potential customers that the advertised good is not available but that a substitute is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_and_switch

Persuasion Techniques: That's not all Technique

When offering or conceding something to somebody, rather than give it to them as a final item, give it in incremental pieces. Do not allow them to respond to each piece you give them -- keep on offering more.

http://changingminds.org/techniques/general/sequential/not_all.htm

Persuasion Techniques: Low Ball Technique

The Low-ball works by first gaining commitment to an idea or item at a lower cost than you really intend to charge, then, using the fact that people will behave consistently with their earlier commitments you change the agreement.
The strategy creates an illusion of irrevocability so that a person believes that a decision made (at lower costs) cannot be reversed, he/she may consider a handshake the close of the deal and therefore have a responsibility to commit to it to the very end.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Ball

Persuasion Techniques: Foot in the door

Foot-in-the-door technique (FITD) is a compliance tactic that involves getting a person to agree to a large request by first setting them up by having that person agree to a modest request.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique

Persuasion Techniques: Door in the Face

The door-in-the-face (DITF) technique is a persuasion method. Compliance with the request of concern is enhanced by first making an extremely large request that the respondent will obviously turn down. The respondent is then more likely to accede to a second, more reasonable request than if this second request were made without the first, extreme request. There is also a feeling of guilt associated with the DITF technique of sequential requests (Cialdini, 2000). A person is also more likely to agree with the second request because they feel guilty for having rejected the first request. A reference point (or framing) construal can also explain this phenomenon, as the initial bad offer sets a reference point from which the second offer looks like an improvement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique

Participant Observation: Home 7

I sat down in my living room to watch the tv while eating my dinner. I’ve noticed things that I had never noticed them before at home. Habits of my parents and sister.
Basic Info. My Father is a businessman who spend lots of time reading newspaper. Mother is a housewife and sister is an K1 student.
I took my dinner and sat down to watch tv at channel U together with family. When I started eating, my mom came sitting beside me and asked me about the dinner. Like how is the dinner, nice or not. While father sitting on his rocking chair reading newspaper. Sister is also eating her dinner when I started the observation. She always walk around the house, playing with her toy and coming for the rice every few minutes after playing. One thing about her is that I realized she plays with her toy with lots of sound effects. She even mixes different types of toy that doesn’t match together. Example is she was playing with her Barbie doll together with her block stacking. I don’t understand what is she playing at all. While she is playing, she spent 50% of her time trying to bring her fringe from the front to the back. And she often forgot about the rice in her mouth, my mom had to remind her to quickly swallow then she will remember to chew the rice in her mouth. Dad reading newspaper sometimes take a short look at what my sister is doing and will engross in the tv for a few seconds when something “weird” happen in the show. Example, the show showing a mom bringing crystal mickey and play it at another table and suddenly the phone rang. The moment when the phone rang, my dad would assume that something will happen. He actually said that the crystal would drop down on the floor when the mom was answering the phone call. But it doesn’t happen, then my dad will go back continue to read his newspaper. Mom sitting beside me who is suppose to feed my sister dinner was engross in the tv show. She spent 80% of the time watching the tv than feeding my sister. One thing I observed from her is that she always peels her heel’s skin. She peels them and place them at the side of the chair. Surprisingly nobody change the tv channel at all. I don’t know why.
When I finished my dinner, my sister finished hers too. I bring those plates to wash in the kitchen. Sister followed me and come to open the fridge to look for jelly and sweets. I asked her not to open it as I’m afraid that she might catch cold from the fridge. She ignored everything that I’ve said. She saw orange juice and shout for mom to drink the orange juice. My mom came over and take a look. She come beside me 1st and throw her skins into the bin beside me. At the same time bring sister back to living room. Sister come back again, mom gave up and decided to cut some fruits for us to eat. I finished my washing 1st. I took my soya bean and sat in living to drink. Sister keep asking for juice. Mom insisted not until she act crying. Mom gave up due to the fake crying. I turn my head and look at my sister, she had that “winning” face. Mom finnish cutting fruits and bring out the juice for sister and the fruits. Dad doesn’t eat the fruits at all. Still reading newspaper. I don’t know whats so interesting about that newspaper. Mom and sis didn’t eat the fruit. Sister is whining about mom not giving her juice at 1st. I thought im the only one eating, swallowed half of them. And then wash my fork and put my soya bean back to fridge. I saw mom and sis eating the fruits when I’m back to living room. Sis don’t really eat. She pass the fruits around for us to eat instead of her eating herself. Mom would accept her offer but dad asked her to put on the plate 1st. sis didn’t obey the instruction, she give it to me instead. When she is passing to me, I realized that she hold the fruit from grabbing it. Just like grabbing a pole instead of using only thumb and 1st finger to hold it. Mom is watching tv and eating at the same time. When the fruits left with only a little, then dad start taking them and eat. He put down his newspaper to eat. He folded the newspaper nicely and placed at the place where we put our old newspaper. When he was eating he kept asking sis questions like, are you full? What did you eat in school today? Did you quarrel with allicia today? Did teacher lim scold you? First 2 questions are answer within 2sec. but the last 2 questions she took around 10sec to answer. And her answer is no. then mom started asking her to learn spelling, she quickly go to mom.
The tv show had ended. Its playing the ending song. Sister will try to sing, mom and dad will watch the credit. And I went back off to my room.

Participant Observation: Home 6

By looking at the sleeping arrangements, I notice that it will be convenient for my mother to wake up early in the morning. She is sleeping near the door of the master bedroom. She will not cause extra noise like the footsteps sound or the squeaking sound of the bed when moving. My mum will always wake up at 0530 in the morn to prepare for the day. It is mostly the job of a mother to prepare for the family in the morning. The reason is that she is the housewife of the family, she does not need to work or attend school outside and she knows every single’s need.
The moon still shines up high, so my mum had to use the kitchen to see clearly. Arrangements of the kitchen were decided by my mum, as she will eventually be the head of the kitchen. The first thing that she would do is to boil the water first, in order to brew fragrance hot coffee. Filled up the water, she placed it on the stove, taking her a little bit more time with some noise produced, knocking on the stove to place it nicely. I can see that she is still not wide awake. After that, she prepares the breakfast; gather all the ingredients on the table, for her convenience to get the food to do sandwiches. Scramble egg, kaya, butter, cheese, all ingredients were prepared to cater to the different taste buds of the family members.
Breakfast done, she went on to wake up my two sisters at 0615. Although their schools are near, both of them at Ang Mo Kio, a less than half an hour to reach their school. My mum still insist on waking them up early in the morning. She knows that both of her children like to drag their time. My youngest sister, Min Yi will give excuses that she had not enough sleep whereby she always sleep at 10pm. It’s kind of weird that a normal person with a full eight hours of sleep can’t get enough of it.
Time 0640, while Min Yi do her last minute packing before going to school, mum went to woke up my young sister, who also likes to do things slowly, too. My mum is very confident to wake her up on time because she has her method. With the anxious voice and reaction, she faked her by telling her that she overslept and she have to wake up immediately before she is late for school. For my Min Qi, whether it is real or not, she would jumped of her bed and rush off to wash up, instead of lying on the bed, thinking that the time will wait for her.
Min Yi laughed, as she saw Min Qi pacing passed her to the bathroom. She, as always, got tricked by mum again. This is Min Qi’s character, she don’t like to be late. She feels that being late is a form of disrespect for the teacher. When one person is late, it means that the person is not serious on their work. Teachers also woke up early for their students in order to impart them the knowledge; students should also at least respect the teacher and be thankful to go to school on time.
Breakfast time is always the time where my two sisters update my mum with their latest ongoing news. They too, get their allowance in the morning every week. They will also get their parent’s signature and pass important notices from the school to them. They choose this time to tell my parents their exam results too. That is the only time where my parents are least focus as they just woke up from a nice sleep, they will not be too angry.
My sisters both left home around 0715, calculated that both of them will reach school before 0745 for the flag raising ceremony. Both of them gave my mum a kiss on the cheek, a form of saying goodbye.
At time 0720, the alarm clock rang, it belongs to the head of the family, my dad’s. He wakes up on his own, only at times when he is too tired; he needs my mum to call him up. He will always be tired when he did not sleep enough the night before. Approximately, whenever he slept mid-night or later. To have an alarm clock rather than my mum’s wake up call, is to show his children that we can wake up independently every day. There is no need to pester mum to wake people up every morning. I can see that it is a form of care toward my mum, not to let her wake up so early in the morning for other family members.
By 0800, my dad will be out to work. I see no unhappy face in his, but rather a fighting spirit within him burning. Because there is a need to fight on for his daughters future.

Participant Observation: Home 5

During dinner, everything could be clearly observed. Dad was sitting in his desk, all down on his work, while Mum and Sister were scooping the rice for everyone in the family. Brother was as usual, down on the sofa comfortably looking at his favourite cartoon. There was no intention for both of them to help Mum and Sister. It was only when all the dishes were served, that Mum called everyone to the dining table for table. From this, it is evident that the males seem to have a greater position that the females in our family. Mum did not ask for help from the males, and did not have the intention to.

The dining begins. Dad started up with his chopsticks digging hungrily into the dish, while Brother and Sister carefully announced:”Let’s eat everyone!”. Mum simply just ate after everyone else did. The male of the family had to start eating before everyone else does. It is very clear that the father of every household now has the power to control activities and is the leading character. There is a clear distinct level between males and females. During dining, Dad started a series of questions regarding the studies of his children and they answered accordingly. They answered his questions carefully and made sure that they were complete and to their dad’s satisfaction.

Finishing dinner, Dad left the table and continued to proceed with his work at the desk. His bowls were soon cleared by Sister, who has also finished her dinner then. We can see that the children had to obey their parents regardless of anything in the household. After a while, Mum waited till everyone finished dinner before clearing everything into the basin and started cleaning them. Women in the household are usually delegated to do labour such as washing and cleaning of different items. This is also usually the social status of women in households as housewives.

Mum bought durians home for dessert and requested for help from Dad. Dad then went on to opening up the durians while Mum started placing them nicely in plates. In terms of manual labour, men seem to be the dominating character as they are required to perform jobs such as repairing, fixing etc.

After desserts, everyone went on to the sofa to watch television. The channel was switched on and everyone tuned in attentively. After a while, Dad started flickering with his newspaper and giving a bored look. He then suggested to watch a DVD since it was a Friday night, and even selected his favourite movie “George of the Jungle”. However, everyone was engrossingly watching the channel and did not had the intention to switch to watching DVD. Then, seeing that there was no response, Dad fumed up and shut the channel. Mum, seeing this, quickly went to insert the DVD into the player while the children kept quiet, looking lost and sad that they missed their favourite show. The selection of activities was done by the father in the household. No one attempted to stop him and had to listen to him reluctantly.

Participant Observation: Home 4

The fight for the remote control was not as intense as it turns out to be, simply because my dad always gets it. From the duration of my observation to the end of it, it seems that my dad always gets control of the remote control. By there is a reason to it. Simply because my dad was the breadwinner and he dosen’t have much time to watch his favourite show, so when he is at home, nobody fights with him for it! So it is either Korean dramas or singing competitions for all family members.
The first part of the observation starts at 7pm. My father has just woke up from his nap after coming back home at 3pm. As he sits down on his favourite position, the screen changes to Channel U for his favourite korean drama, Likeable or Not. My sister grumbles about the plot dragging on for too long. Probably out of respect for my dad, she did not reach out and fight for control of the remote control. Finally, the first part of the commercial arrived. This is when dad relinquished control of the remote control. As he relinquished control he said: “Only 1 minute, watch anything but remember the korean drama”. After this, he heads to the toilet. At this very moment, my sister grabbed the remote control and switched to Channel 8 for a peek on her favourite Hong Kong drama. But after 1 minute, dad appeared on the dot and said politely: “Could we change back to Channel U?” Right at this moment, My sister unwillingly relinquished control of the remote control and it is back to Channel U for the korean drama. My sister then had to give up her favourite drama, but she said: “ Pa, since you are working the evening shift tommorow, you won’t be able to watch it, so you better enjoy yourself.” My dad smiled and turned his attention back to the television.
As the show reaches the climax, the screen changes to show the commercials. Dad grumbled: Why do they always show the commercials?” After grumbling, he went for his usual toilet breaks. This is when my sister quickly switch over to Channel 8 for her Hong Kong drama. This time round, dad took a little bit longer than usual, he returned 4 minutes later and he took over the control of the remote control. But by then , the korean drama had resumed and he grumbled for missing a small part of it. The show progressed on and everyone in the family continued to be engrossed in the drama. About 15 minutes later, it is the commercial break again! As usual, dad relinquishes control of the remote control and went to have a quick dinner. This time round my sister did not turn to Channel 8 for her favourite drama, she said: “ Ai Yah! No point turning , i had already missed a large chunk of my show, it is not interesting to continue anymore.” As she finished, she heads back to her room.



Dad quickly finished his dinner and just in time, the korean drama is back on screen again. He the went back to his favourite place and sat down to watch the show with my mum as my sister remains in her room. 10 minutes later, the korean drama ends at 7.55pm. At this moment, my sister trooped out from her room, this time round, dad switched to Channel 8 because another of his favourite show was showing. This time round my dad and sister was not fighting for control of the remote control anymore as they both share the same liking for this show. This show that they are watching was a taiwanese variety show where well-known singers were invited to the show to compete in a “Don’t forget the lyrics” lookalike competition where they must carry on and fill in the empty blanks to a missing part of a song.
The first singer emerges and picked a 70’s song. My dad then exclaimed: This is my favourite song!” Then he started to sing along and unsuprisingly, dad now the missing lyrics and urged the contestant to follow his answer. In the end, both my dad and the contestant were right. Then the show carried on. After a few more songs, it is the commercial break and dad takes a break and leaves the sofa to get a drink while my sister continues to sit in her favourite sit without leaving for a break.
The show resumed in about three minutes time, Then dad slowly trooped back and sat on his favouite place and resumed watching the variety show. This time round the singer picked a song of a techno genre, this time round my father complained about it being noisy, while my sister enjoyed it. After this, the show continued. The next was again one of dad’s favourite song and he started to sing along with the contestant, but this time the contestant did not follow my dad’s answer and he got koncked out. Then dad exclaimed: “ When I was listening to this song, you are not born yet!” Then all of us started to laugh about it.
After 20 minutes had passed and the time reaches 9pm, this marks the end of the variety show and the end of my observation. At the end of my observation I asked my sister and mother if the shows that dad was watching are shows that they really wanted to watch, my sister said: “ Ai Yah! Why fight with pa for the tv, he rarely gets to watch his favourite shows as he is working. He must have some time to relax.” Then my mother answered: “ It isn’t about what show i’m watching, it is about spending time with your pa.”
From this observation, I discovered that dad had a tight control of the remote control. The whole family did not fight for it as they knew my dad worked very hard to support the family, so when he has time to watch his favourite shows, they don’t fight for the control of the remote control with him. From this observation, I discovered that it was not that it was not my dad’s dominance that resulted in him getting control of the remote control, it was more of the whole family acknowledging the hardwork he had put in to support the family and the respect they had for my dad. It made me realised that you do not win over something by force, you win somthing through the respect that people have for you.

Participant Observation: Home 3

She is watching the television now. Channel U a Taiwanese show that she had watched for more than 2 years consecutively. Sitting on the nylon stretchable chair, she comfortably watches it everyday without fail. She plucks the stems of the vegetables for dinner later on while watching the series. Without fail, she will comment about the characters in the show and cursed at the antagonist. The show finishes and she went into the kitchen to cook her dishes.

Dad comes home at 615pm. He came home with some mails in the hand and his uniform: REDWOOD. He walks into the kitchen and talked to mom about his work. And mom will listen attentively to him while she cooks her dishes.

A huge pot of soup is always on the menu. Brother is always on the computer, playing games. Mom nagged at him “Do you want to do your homework! Can you listen?” Brother will reply: wait la! And she saw my shoe on the floor. She nags again “ah boy! Your shoe you want or not! Don’t want and I will throw it away?” I just replied with an “Orh!” The cycle is never ending. Mom never stops nagging at people. Brother will always play his computer games at this period of time. Dad just didn’t say anything and go straight to the bedroom bathroom to bath. After the shower, he goes into his bedroom to rest and check his documents.

7pm, she turned on the television to continue the show on Korean and watched the show while she cooks. Sitting on the chair comfortably, she only continues her cooking whenever there is commercial breaks. Dad came into the living room and sat down on the sofa and watched the series with my mom in the living room. Although he did not watch this series a lot, but he still do watch it sometimes whenever he can after work.

800pm, he went to take a shower and while mom continues with the last dish, soup.
810pm, the dinner starts. I seriously think she always cooked so slowly and this is the main reason for our family members being obese. Eat late. Mom is the one who get the rice and set everything ready for dinner. The dinner table was brought out to the living room and the newspaper was placed above it. This is a norm in our house so that we could actually just clear the used dirty newspaper and not needing to clear the tables with a wet cloth.
I went to have dinner with them while watching the television. After that she calls for everyone to have out dinner. Brother still got hooked to the computer. She nags again.

After dinner mom keeps the dishes and dad washed the dishes. 9 o’clock and I went back to my room while watching them and dad took the remote control and start to click, changing the channels constantly. They really have a great task of multi-tasking when dad opens the mails that he took from the letter box earlier and read them. Brother is still on the computer. Eyes attentively on the screen, literally.
10.00pm, dad tune into channel 8 and watched the news. They just sat there quietly and commented on much news that came about. She nagged at my brother again to tell him to do homework. Brother got really pissed off and responded: Hah Nah! Shut up la!

It is 1030pm. Mom sat on the floor leaning against the wall, bringing the fruits in and cut in front of the television watching the news with dad. She laid newspaper below the fruits too to prevent mopping later “Ah boy ah! You want fruits or not!”(Referring to me) Brother heard it and went from the computer table to the floor and sits around the place and start enjoying the honeydew. Meanwhile mom was cutting the pineapple.
I went to eat the fruits and said I have something to do so I came back. Just now my mom passed the honeydew to my dad. Mom continued to sit on the floor and still watching the show on the television. She continues to nag at my brother to shut down the computer. About 1045pm, she took the plates and newspaper to the kitchen. Bro is still on the computer playing the games and mom nagged at him again.

Life of a housewife is just so boring, TV, COOK, WASH, NAG….

Participant Observation: Home 2

In the inquisitiveness of wanting to know more about how things works with the most dominant person in my home, I decided to set my observation upon my family members. My first instance of descries in the early morning when I woke up, was to see my father waking my sister up. Just within the first reminder of my father asking her to wake up, she woke up without an intermediary and straight walked to the toilet to take her shower. This constituent factor made me wonder why she woke up so quick when my dad woke her but whenever my mother wakes her up in the morning for school, she will be like saying, “amma (mother) give me 5 more minutes” and tries to negotiate the time of waking up but it did not happen so with my father. Later after she took her shower I asked her, “Abirami, why you woke up straight away when appa (father) woke you up just now?” and she replied, “You know right that appa (father) do not like this kind of bargaining with him all so that is why I never say anything back and moreover I was so shock to hear him waking me up so I just woke up”. After awhile my sister was about to leave the house for school and she said “Bye appa”. This then triggered me a little more than the waking up because I was also about to leave for school yet she did not even say bye to me although I was long used to it but i still wanted to know why she said bye to my father only. Later that day when I came back from school I asked her, “abi how come you always say bye to appa only and never say bye to me or amma?” and she replied, “no la I don’t know why also la but it just happens that I automatically will say bye to appa”. Then I ask her why again as I did not feel very convinced with her answer, then she said, “I think its because I have lots of respect for him and also that he is the eldest”. Upon hearing that, I then made my main observation on a weekend, Saturday when everyone was at home. My mum woke up early and made breakfast for us. She made my father’s favourite dish, thosai (An Indian dish). To have completed the making of breakfast for us, she had to wake up at about 7am, which is 2 hours before my dad wakes up in the morning and then go to the market to get the stuff and come back home in time to cook despite having quite a number of steps to prepare the dish like grinding the flour, mixing it well with other ingredients and to also make the side dish to go along with it for our breakfast. It amuses me to actually see her being very keen to do us such a time consuming dish for our breakfast on a Saturday morning having to wake up early. It is because my mother has only one day off per week off and she could have actually chosen to wake up late as that is her only off/rest day. Therefore I asked her, “amma why you wake up so early to prepare breakfast?” And she replied, “At least once a week I can make your father happy by making his favourite dish for breakfast as he is working so hard for us all the time”. I was then starting to apprehend the status of my father in the grounds of my home through my mother and sister. On the same day after having breakfast, my sister and I were studying in our own rooms. My sister has this habit of blasting music while studying but whenever my dad is at home, that never seemed to happen. Once again, out of curiosity I straight when into her room and asked her “Abi, why didn‘t you blast the music today?’’ and she said, “Appa do not like blasting music and he will scold”. When I heard that statement from my sister, I learnt that she indeed knows my father very well about his likes and dislikes and caters to it in the right manner with a sense of respect for he is our father, the eldest and having a sense of that he is the superior one in our home. Later in the afternoon of the day, my whole family was watching television altogether. Then I realised that my father was the one holding the remote throughout. At a point of time we were all watching a Tamil movie on Vasantham Central channel and my father changed the channel when the advertisement came and he realised that there was a replay match of his favourite soccer team Liverpool. Thus, he just decided to continue watching the match without sparing a thought to change back the channel for us to continue watching the Tamil movie. Gradually it came to my realisation that my mother and sister were giving into him to just let him continue watching his soccer match as my mother slowly said that she was going to take a short nap. Shortly after she said that, my sister also added along in saying, “I am going back to my room to continue studying.” When I heard this, it staggered me real bad to eagerly know why they do not mind giving in so much to my father and knowing for a fact that my mother really liked that particular movie which was going on in that Vasantham Central channel and she was even longing to watch it again sometime ago. Instead, she gave in to my father to let him watch the encore telecast of the soccer match. I then went into my parents room with a desperate urge to get an answer for how and why they react as such to only my father so I asked her, “amma, are you sure that you do not want to watch the movie? and I thought you love the movie very much so why don’t you ask appa to change the channel for you to watch it?” and she replied, “You know your father loves soccer so much and he does not like it when he is asked to change the channel while he is watching his match”. Upon hearing that I went to my sister’s room asking her, “why today you were sitting down so nicely in a well mannered way” (as my sister will usually sit down on the sofa with her legs up on the table) and her reply was that, “later appa will scold for not sitting properly”. Subsequently in the evening we were all set to go out for dinner and my dad was asking all of us, “Where do you’ll think we should go for dinner” and no one replied. Then my father said, “ok let’s all go Changi village” and I looked at my mother’s face to see her reaction, she was essentially quite uncomfortable as I could see from her actions such as she was combing her hair with her hands, and as for my sister her face changed with a pinch of morose as she is afraid of the stray cats which change village is filled with. When we were in the car, travelling to Changi Village, my father was talking to us asking about our studies and school matters. I then realised that my sister was trying to converse with my dad with the right kind of words and in the most appropriate way and I know it so well that it was not her usual way of speaking like that as I have never heard her deliberating in such an appropriate manner to my mother nor me. When we came back, I asked her ,“Why you always speak so cautiously to appa?”, And she said, “ I’m afraid I may say something wrong that’s why”.

As from what I have observed thoroughly for the theme I chose to work on, it has come to such a crystal clear realisation of truth that the most respected/ dominant person at home is my father. The foremost reasons to why we respect him so much is because of the sacrifices he has made for the family by working so hard and giving us a good life. He does not load his burden upon us and instead he carries it all upon himself just to give us the best he could. Therefore everyone respects him and thus, we rather cater to his needs as much as possible. His words are final and no one objects to it. Some of the main obvious observations made were such as the single-seat sofa in the living room which is only for my father where my father sits to relax or watches television and no one will ever sit there whenever he is at home. It is like as if to say that the sofa is the throne and the ruler shall occupy the seat. Being the most respected and dominant person in the household, It is like a big position of responsibility where a higher level authority is given upon him. Therefore he has to live up to it and I feel that my father has done so much so that over the years, he had showed us that having such a pivotal role in the family is a great responsibility and not everyone can rise up to that challenge.

Participant Observation: Home 1

It is always a weekly routine that my family and I gather down to watch the Sunday night movie on channel five. Today’s Blockbuster movie is War of the World.
My mum and my dad are now all sitting on the sofa. When the movie began, my mum asked me if the movie was nice. I said I do not know and but should be quite exciting. I am mot interested in this kind of thriller movie, that’s why I am no watching it now.
During the first commercial break, my dad went to sweep the floor. And he always mumbles things when he sweeps. He will tell me “See! Your dad is so nice” and like things like “You’re not guilty?” and I will say “ I also got help you every time” . he will then continue to mumble. That is really funny. He now stops by and watches the movie again and asked my mum what happened? As he always does that, my mum replied “ Watch yourself! Every time ask people and you don’t watch, tell you and you don’t get it also! I guess she felt irritated as she is now watching the movie. Actually we all felt like this because my dad always does that! He always have a lot of questions about the movie.
When he is sweeping the floor he started to complain “ See , the floor is forever so dirty. GRRR!” I totally agree with him because every time after we sweep the floor, there is always hair and dust! So it was quite irritating.
He then sit down and continue the movie and on the next advertisement he went to mop the floor. And, the complaining begins! Haha! What a cute dad I haveJ
At around 8.15pm, my brother return home from watching movie Transformer with my cousin’s family. As my mum is too lazy she asked me open the door! Haha! When my brother returned, my mum asked him a lot of questions. First “ Did the rain caught you?”, “Eaten already?” and “ Are you full”( He is a BIG eater!). He answered all and sat down on watch the movie together with her.
After my dad finished mopping the floor, he disappeared into his own room and start watching soccer. He came out like 10minutes later and asked my mum what happened. And my mum was like “ AIYOOO! Watch youself lah!” haha! This is actually mu dad’s habit, he always asks people about things he never watch, even if we explain to him, he don’t understand.
He then disappeared into the room again to take shower. So, only my brother and mum are in the living the room. They start discussing about the movie. I wasn’t too sure on what they are discussing about there were things like “ yea, they ran the right way since the water he coming from that direction” and “ they escaped to the right place”.
Now, my brother disappeared in to the kitchen looking for food. He is hungry! Haha! He is a really big eater so a normal dinner wouldn’t be enough for him. He came back we some biscuits and my mum asked him for some. My mum really likes to eat finger food stuff, that’s why we got lots of biscuits at home.
My dad came out again and randomly, my dad and mum are now discussing about Tom Cruise. I heard stuff like “He also not handsome how come so popular in Hollywood” and they continued discussing on the latest news of him.
My brother then went to take a shower and after he is done, he shouted “ Anyone want to shower, need to off heater not”. This is usually a family thing like after we shower, we will always announce if no one wants to shower, we’ll off the heater.
My dad return to his room and came out again. He wanted to use our lap top as he wanted to play game. But both me and my brother were using, so he backed out! He then went to use the old computer we had at our study room. After 2minutes, he shouted to my mum how to go in the game. This time my mum shouted back “ I taught you that time already, told you to remember how to go in you never listen! “ haha! She then tells my brother to help my dad. My dad also has this short term memory thing with electronic stuff.
It’s now 9.30pm and the movie is over, my mum was left alone at the sofa. She began to look through movies on Mio TV.
At the study room, my dad kept complaining about the computer as it auto shut down. He kept calling me and asked me to come over to solve the problem. Haha! As he shouted too much and mum gave up and asked my brother to give up his lap top for my dad to play games. My brother was watching an online animation on his computer and was vey reluctant to let it out. My father then continued to complain about the old computer in the study room. Haha! I went to help him restart the computer, 5minutes later, it auto shut down again.
So, my dad gave up, went to watch television with my mum. He then start talking and asking my mum question again. Like “ Isn’t his the guy in Ocean 13”.
My brother finished his animation online and asked my dad to use it. I bet my mum will be happy if my dad went to use the lap top as there will be no one to disturb her! haha!
As my brother walked past my dad, my dad and mum told him not to hunchback. As my brother is quite tall of his age, he was hunchback and the nickname my mum gave him was turtle. So when he wasn’t standing straight my mum will shout turtle turtle!
My brother disappeared into the room, my dad went to use his lap top and mym mum was left alone watching the movie now.