Observations (10)

what is an observation?

A type of non-experimental study method- essentially watches peoples behaviour and draws conclusions

What are the 6 types of observations?

• Participant

• Non-participant

• Overt

• Covert

• Controlled

• Naturalistic

What is a participant observation?

Where the observer is part of the group of being observed (may be unknown to PPs)

One advantage of participant observations?

• Researcher can experience the situation as the participants to- increases external validity

A disadvantage of participant observation?

Research may come to identify too strongly with those their studying and lose objectivity

→ ‘going native’

What is a non- participant observation?

Where the observer just watches and does not interact with the PPs

One advantage of non-participant observation?

• allows researcher to maintain an objective psychological distance- less danger of ‘going native’

One disadvantage of non-participant observations?

May lose valuable insight

What is an overt observation?

Where the person being watched is observed there being watched.

One Advantage of overt observations?

More ethical

One disadvantage of overt observations?

More chance of demand characteristics

What is a Covert observation?

Person has no knowledge they’re being watched

One Advantage of Covert observation?

No demand characteristics- natural behaviours will increase externality

One disadvantage of Covert observations?

Ethics may be questioned- no consent

What is a controlled observation?

Some variables are regulated by the researcher, including the naturalness of the situation

One Advantage of a controlled observation?

• EVs are less of a problem so replication is easier

One disadvantage of a controlled observation?

Can’t be generalised as easily

What is a naturalistic observation?

behaviour is studie in a natural setting where everything has been left normally

One advantage of naturalistic observations?

High external validity- easily generalised

2 disadvantages of naturalistic observations?

• lack of control makes replication difficulties

• Uncontrolled EVs

What is a unstructured observation?

Research records all relevant information, but has no system- record everything they see

What is disadvantage of unstructured observations?

Often too much going on for the research to see everything

What is a structured observation?

Target behaviour is operationalised using behavioural categories (checklist)

This include breaking target behaviour (aggression) into operationalised components that can be obtained and measured (hitting, spitting)

War three factors that make good behaviour categories?

• Be objective- don’t be influenced by personal opinions/feelings

• Cover all possible behaviour components and avoid an ‘other’ category

• Be mutually exclusive- meaning you should not mark two categories at the same time

What are the two types of sampling?

• Event sampling

• Time sampling

What is event sampling?

Counting the number of times a behaviour occurs

Evaluation of event sampling?

Useful for in frequent behaviour which doesn’t necessarily occur a regular intervals

What is time sampling?

Counting the number of times a behaviour occurs in given time frames (e.g every 10 minutes)

Evaluation of time sampling?

Reduces the number of observations- rather than record everything that is seen data is recorded at certain intervals. This makes the observation more structured and systematic however it may be unrepresentative as you may miss important details outside of the time scale.