EOC Week 6: Deeper Meaning of the Film Big

In the first part of the film there is a situation set up where the characters are talking with each other about the company and what is going on with the direction of the company as a whole.  This is an important scene not because of what is being said but because of what is going on behind the characters.  You can see that they are in a room with a two way mirror and they are supposed to be observing the children playing with the toys behind them. This would be considered direct observation. “Direct observation can produce detailed records of what people actually do during an event. The observer plays a passive role, making no attempt to control or manipulate a situation, instead merely recording what occurs. Every effort is made for the interviewer not to interject him- or herself into the situation” (Zikmund & Babin, 2010).  The important thing to remember is that even though there is no intervention on the viewer’s part, this is not an accurate sampling because the conditions are controlled meaning that the children only have a limited amount of toys to play with, which is why the toy company is not getting the accurate information it needs to be successful in the market place.

Soon after that scene we see Josh in FAO Swartz playing with another adolescent boy.  Josh gets shot with a laser gun and enacts his death on the floor of the toy store. Josh soon realizes that he is being watched by the president of the toy company he is now working for and gets embarrassed as he stands up to have a conversation with him.  The president of the toy company soon comes to the realization that Josh would be an excellent candidate for contrived observation. “Most observation takes place in a natural setting, but sometimes the investigator intervenes to create an artificial environment to test a hypothesis. This approach is called contrived observation. Contrived observation can increase the frequency of occurrence of certain behavior patterns” (Zikmund & Babin, 2010). The president sets up an office where Josh can play or evaluated the toys that are in production to gain a better understanding of how successful the toys will be once they reach the market place and are sold to the general public.