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Growing up throughout my school years I’ve seen many different things and been through many different situations however there was always one thing that stuck out for me due to how much it has followed me throughout my life. Growing up I never really had a problem with how I sounded to others until I started to hear the same thing over and over again. “You talk like a white girl” or I “talked white”. I heard it so often, especially in my middle school years that I started thinking the way I spoke was a problem and I started to second guess myself every time I spoke. It has me wondering if I switched up how I talked if it would make me fit in better with certain crowds. 

      For a very long time I didn’t fully understand just how much that subtle type of judgement could very well take a big toll on a black girl’s mental health especially at a young age. When people mock or question the way someone speaks or acts, not only is that judgement but it also sends a message to people who go through it that if they don’t speak a certain way then their blackness is being betrayed. The pressure that people like me go through with stuff like this, as we’re always trying to prove that we are “black enough” can damage people’s confidence in themselves.  It can cause people to not want to act like themselves more if it just leads to being judged and it makes it hard to be at peace in our minds as well. 

      I recall back in ninth grade when I was in the afterschool program at my school we had been playing a game of Uno. I was getting out of my shell and talking to the kids around me trying my hardest to sound confident in myself. At one point after I had finished talking to someone a girl on the side had spoken up and said “Why do you talk like that…you sound like a white girl.” It wasn’t my first time hearing this in school in general but at the moment I just didn’t know how to respond. I laughed it off and tried to pretend like it didn’t bother me but it really did. After that moment I started to second guess myself every time I spoke. I tried to change how I spoke around certain people even if it felt unnatural to me. It was always exhausting to put up a front just to feel accepted by people of my own community. That’s what really bothered me the most, if it was outsiders it wouldn’t be so bad but hearing it come from my own community just didn’t feel good. 

     As I get older and continue to grow as a person I am realizing that I don’t need to change or alter the way I speak just to please other people. Who I am as a person will always be who I am and I won’t keep trying to change myself to fit in because then I won’t feel true to myself. I also began to realize that there isn’t a way to “sound black”. Everybody has a different voice that fits them and who they are and a way someone sounds doesn’t prove what race they are. It took a lot of time but I have learned to embrace my voice and the way I speak without worrying about what others think or have to say about it. I surround myself with people who accept me for who I am and I’m not letting what people have said in the past or even if it comes up in the future again to have power over me. How I speak doesn’t make me less than what I am, all it does is make me me. Realizing this has really helped me to build confidence in myself and to stop trying to fit in with others who will always have something negative to say.

       These experiences in my life have really taught me a lot even if they were negative. These experiences have shown me just how much words can affect someone’s mental health especially when it comes from people in your community. However it has also taught me how important it is to be confident in myself and accept who I am no matter what. My voice shows who I am, my story, my culture and I won’t let anyone else make me question or feel ashamed of myself again. 

Have you ever wondered about what you could figure out about someone just by simply observing them? Many people don’t realize but you can tell a lot about a person or animal just by observing them in their natural environment as that is when they reveal their authentic self. This is where naturalistic observation shines in psychology. Naturalistic observation is a research method in psychology that records the behavior of a subject in their natural environment without manipulation. Even though criticized, Naturalistic observation unlike a controlled environment allows for psychologists to gain more insight into authentic social behaviors of humans that cannot be replicated in lab environments which is crucial for psychological research. 

    Naturalistic observation helps researchers study and analyze different behaviors/interactions that are very difficult and sometimes even impossible to recreate in artificial settings. Experiences like how people act in public situations or how dynamics play out in work environments. The advantage that natural settings have is the ability to give situations that are unscripted and very often unpredictable giving researchers access to behaviors and interactions that are realistic to what you would see in real life. For example, analyzing how a group of teens talk and interact at a lunch table can show real group dynamics that a controlled environment couldn’t. Naturalistic observation allows for researchers to use what they have learned and apply it more directly into the real world which makes naturalistic observation a strong research method for connecting studies with human experiences. 

    Another important strength that naturalistic observation has is that it helps to remove and bias or influence in the studies. In artificially produced settings by researchers because of the fact that the people who are participating in the studies are aware that they are apart of an experiment/study their behaviors and actions will shift for that experiment and this is actually called the Hawthorne effect which is a phenomenon on which people change their behaviors when they know they are being watched. Naturalistic observation allows for studies to take place without the person’s knowledge that they are being watched and this allows for data to be more genuine and authentic than in artificial settings. This allows for studies to be more reliable because its chances of being influenced by other factors is lowered. For example, observing kids in a playground environment without them realizing allows for their actions on the playground such as kindness, sharing or even conflicts to be a lot more genuine then if they were to be placed into an artificial lab setting under pressure. Naturalistic observation allows for a more clear path into genuine actions and behaviors which makes it a very strong tool for psychological research. 

       Even with all of its strengths, like many methods naturalistic observation does have limitations and weaknesses that researchers should not overlook when using this research method. The main limitation of naturalistic observation is its lack of a controlled outside variable which makes it harder for researchers to really determine sometimes the exact cause of certain behaviors and reactions. When the subject is in an environment that is not controlled it allows for different factors to influence their behavior which can hinder or make it difficult for researchers to figure out the exact cause and effect of an experiment. Another limitation of naturalistic observation is that it can lead to concerns about how ethical it is. This is because since the participants aren’t aware of being observed, questions about privacy and consent are a big thing. One more limitation of naturalistic observation is bias which can be caused if the research unintentionally mistakes the participants behaviors and reactions in a way that only proves their expectations. Even though naturalistic observation provides researchers with authentic data and results. These limitations show that just like any other research method may not always be 100% reliable just by itself and it’s best to be used with other research methods for better results. 

       In conclusion, naturalistic observation really stands out as such a valuable and important research method in psychology due to the fact that it allows for researchers to be able to see and observe genuine and authentic human behavior in uncontrolled and real world situations. Even though it comes with some challenges such as lack of control or ethical concerns, you can’t take away just how important it is to collect authentic interactions and behaviors in people which makes it such a strong research method in understanding human and social behavior/dynamics. Psychologists can balance naturalistic observation strengths and limitations and use it to connect their data a lot more directly to real life situations making the research method meaningful and applicable. FIQWS Composition_ Analysis Essay