Design of observational techniques

Question 1

What must be considered when planning an obs study?

Answer 1

• Whether the obs will be structured or unstructured
• Devise behavioural catagories
• Which sampling method they will use

Question 2

What is an unstructured observation?

Answer 2

• When a researcher simply writes everything down and reports everything they see
• Tends to produce accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail
• Usually done when there’s a small number of participants

Question 3

What is a structured interview?

Answer 3

• Researcher simplifies down into target behaviours they are looking for
• Target behaviours need to be very clearly defined
• Allows for quantification of results

Question 4

What are behavioural categories?

Answer 4

• This is a form of operationalisation
• Breaking target behaviours down into simple actions or words or something that can be easily observed and measured
• EG = Aggression would be kicking, punching, swearing

Question 5

What are sampling procedures?

Answer 5

• When conducting obs the researcher must use a systematic way of sampling their observations using event sampling or time sampling

Question 6

What is event sampling?

Answer 6

• Counting the number of times a certain target behaviour occurs
• Measuring how many times a child punches o kicks in a 10 minute period
• Usually kept in a tally form

Question 7

What is time sampling?

Answer 7

• Recording behaviours in a given time frame, eg. every minute
• Behaviour may be kicking, if it was observed in the first minute then yes would be wrote down

Question 8

what is inter-rater reliability?

Answer 8

• Researchers/observers agree on a particular thing
• Ensures validity of findings
• Observers are trained to observe and spot the target behaviours
• Observers will then watch the same behaviour and should come out with similar findings
• Observers then discuss findings and any differences they have
• A positive correlation/Strong inter-rater reliability should be 0.8+