Observations of Social Behaviors

Jeanette Irambona

Galen College

Sociology 1305

Dr. Johnson

10/19/2022
 Observations of Social Behaviors

The event I chose to do my observation was Planet Fitness located at 5318 Dixie Hwy,

Louisville Ky 40216. My social observation took place on Saturday, October 15, 2022. The gym

is an area that is private and gives people of age groups and backgrounds them to come together

to help maintain and improve their physical fitness. I chose the gym because this location had the

highest potential for providing me with observational skills and applying the theories of social

interaction into practice (OpenStax,2015). Even more than that, the gym is open 24/7 allowing

members of the club to come any time of the day. For my observation, I conducted the

observation in two parts, at its busiest time and its slowest times, the observation took 6 hours

total.

A theory that can describe the events that take place in the gym would be the symbolic

interactionism theory. Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on the

relationships between individuals in a society (OpenStax 2015). People today use symbols and

languages from all over the world to communicate with each other. Symbolic interactionism

focuses on one-to-one interactions attached to human interactions, both verbal and nonverbal.

First, at the gym, I observed the population of the gym. I observed how it changed over

the few hours I was there. I noticed how the gym was less busy around the morning time as

between 9 am-1 pm. There are seniors in the gym in the morning. I see everyone focusing on

cardio or doing stretches. Many of them were on the treadmills or even bicycles. I noticed that

older people like coming to the gym early in the day because there isn’t usually too much chaos

in the gym, and they don’t have to worry about waiting for anyone to finish an exercise before

being able to use the equipment they are wanting to use.

 Observations I made at night found the population there to be younger. I was able to see

the different cars that were in the parking lot. I noticed that earlier in the day the people have

more normal cars, and later in the day, the cars in the lot were flashier. The first noticeable social

norm is that most people who conduct high-intensity training are in a particular part of the gym.

Specifically, right in front of the treadmills. The youths were at the gym focusing on specific

parts of the body. The youths work on cardio but not as much as older people were in the

daytime. Young adults, especially men, focus on building the muscles of the upper body. For the

girls, their usual focus is working their legs and glutes. It's a lower body exercise to be precise.

Attending the gym has become a norm today, everyone’s, working out.

Finally, gyms showcase general social rules, specific formal norms that everyone should

follow. They're all over the gym big and bold such as keeping the equipment clean, refraining

from starting, and staying in your designated workout area. Consequently, the gym society

promptly intervenes to correct any violations of the written laws by expressing dissatisfaction

and offering instructions for remedial action.

My observation was conducted at a gym because I felt like it was best for my assignment.

The gym truly shows cultural pluralism during this long viewing as people from different

cultures and ethnic groups come together and collaborate. Allowing everyone to engage in

conversations and support one another in the same space. The gym also provided me with a

snippet of conflict theory and illustrates how people in a position of power are given more

resources to better their health in areas in which they are located in. George Stimmel believed

that conflict resolution would stabilize society, so by setting up more gyms in less fortunate

areas, this would prevent conflict theories. The functionalism of the gym gave me a better

understanding of human behavior today in the setting in the observation happened in.
 References:

OpenStax. (2015). Introduction to Sociology, 2e. Huston, TX: OpenStax. Retrieved on October

16, 2022, from: https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-sociology-2e?Book%20details