My Psychology Term Paper

Respect for Simple and Universal Codes of Conduct to Promote Order:
Non-reactive Survey

Abstract

Lunch diners at Annenberg were observed exiting the dining hall’s tray deposit room. These observations were made to determine the correlation between gender and regard for simple, universal codes of conduct that are set in place to promote order. Results showed that there is no significant difference between the two gender’s tendencies to abide by codes of orderly conduct. The tendency to follow universal codes of orderly conduct is influenced more by one’s values, background, cultural affiliation, and personality than by one’s gender.

Introduction

Standing in line to wait for one’s turn, not interrupting when others are speaking, raising one’s hand to speak, and following traffic rules are all examples of being respectful of simple, universal codes of conduct that promote order. As much as it peeves people to have to follow them, people also realize the chaos that would occur if these rules weren’t abided. Still, some people still continue to disregard these codes of conduct. The purpose of this study is to see if one gender has a higher tendency to disregard these codes of conduct.

Method

From the vantage point of a nearby dining table, diners at Annenberg were observed exiting the tray depositing room. My observations were covert and non-participant; to others I seemed to be merely studying as I ate. There are two holes in the wall facing the dining area for entering and exiting the tray depositing room. One hole is labeled “Entrance” while the other hole is labeled “Exit”. Although there are no rules stating that one must exit through the “Exit” and enter through the “Entrance”, it is a simple, universal code that one must do so. This is because people realize that if everyone entered and exited the room anyway they wished then there would be a lot of chaotic pushing and shoving and people jams.

In this study, diners were first recorded as either male or female and then recorded as either respectful of codes of orderly conduct or not respectful of codes of orderly conduct. The determination of gender was based on the diner’s physical build and clothing. The diner was marked as respectful of codes of orderly conduct when he/she exited through the hole in the wall labeled “Exit” and the diner was marked as not respectful of codes of orderly conduct when he/she exited through the hole in the wall labeled “Entrance”.
In my study, I observed the first 400 diners that exited the tray depositing room beginning at 12:26 pm on a non-holiday weekday (Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004). My observations ended when the 400th person exited the room at 12:59 pm that same day. No special apparatus save from a watch, a pen, and papers were needed to conduct this study.

Results

Of the males that were observed exiting the tray depositing room, 19.3% exited through the entrance. Of the females observed exiting the tray depositing room, 18.8% exited through the entrance. There is not significant evidence from this study to conclude that males are less likely to follow codes of orderly conduct than are females.


Respect for Codes of Orderly Conduct

Exits through hole labeled “Exit”
Yes No

Male 142 34
Female 182 42


Conclusion

From this study, the conclusion can be made that one gender is not more or less likely to abide by simple, universal codes of orderly conduct. However, this finding can only be generalized to members of privileged, educational, and multi-cultural environments. More research must be done to make further deductions about the human population as a whole and to confirm the findings from this study. The diners that were observed exiting the Annenberg tray depositing room made up an incidental sample.

An interesting observation that was made while conducting this observational study was the fact that diners were more likely to exit the tray depositing room through the wrong way when there was no line at the entrance of the room. Because the majority of the dining hall was closer to the entrance of the tray depositing room than to the exit of it, diners had an incentive to exit through the entrance to save themselves a few extra steps. However, when a line formed, the act of having to shove through the line that took up most of the space in the entrance wasn’t worth the effort for most people. In fact, a number of diners entered the tray depositing room through the exit and plopped their trays on top of other trays in order to avoid the tedious line. This didn’t happen when there was no line at the entrance. Because this behavior hadn’t been anticipated and incorporated into the design of the observational study, the number of diners who were considered not respectful of codes of orderly conduct is probably too low. This is a chief limitation to consider if this study is to be conducted again.