7.1: Observational design

Question 1

People’s perception of how they spend their time at the gym is often not very accurate. Some spend more time chatting than on the treadmill. A psychologist decides to observe the actual behaviour of an opportunity sample of gym users at a local gym.

Explain why it is more appropriate for the psychologist to use an observation than a questionnaire in this case (3 marks)

Answer 1

It is more appropriate for the psychologist to use an observation than a questionnaire in this case, because a self-report method like a questionnaire would lead to socially desirable answers, which would not reflect what really happens at the gym

Question 2

People’s perception of how they spend their time at the gym is often not very accurate. Some spend more time chatting than on the treadmill. A psychologist decides to observe the actual behaviour of an opportunity sample of gym users at a local gym.

Explain why it is more appropriate for the psychologist to use an observation than a questionnaire in this case (3 marks).
It is more appropriate for the psychologist to use an observation than a questionnaire in this case, because a self-report method like a questionnaire would lead to socially desirable answers, which would not reflect what really happens at the gym, so what?

Answer 2

It is more appropriate for the psychologist to use an observation than a questionnaire in this case, because a self-report method like a questionnaire would lead to socially desirable answers, which would not reflect what really happens at the gym, so the data would lack validity

Question 3

Explain how inter-observer reliability could be ensured by working as a pair (3 marks)

Answer 3

The student pair should discuss and agree beforehand their interpretation of the behavioural categories

Question 4

Explain how inter-observer reliability could be ensured by working as a pair (3 marks).
The student pair should discuss and agree beforehand their interpretation of the behavioural categories.

Answer 4

Each student should then observe the same people/space/target at the same time but record/tally independently

Question 5

Explain how inter-observer reliability could be ensured by working as a pair (3 marks).
The student pair should discuss and agree beforehand their interpretation of the behavioural categories.
Each student should then observe the same people/space/target at the same time but record/tally independently.

Answer 5

Their respective recordings/tallies should be correlated using an appropriate statistical test to ascertain the level of agreement