L2 - Observational Techniques Flashcards
What’s an observation?
When a researcher watches/listens to participant engaging in whatever behaviour is being studied
Non participant observation
researcher doesn’t get directly involved with interactions of the participants and doesn’t take part in their activities
Non participant observation advantages
Can focus on recording all information
Can focus on activity occurring and can make good quality notes and make sure that all details are recorded and no actions/behaviour are missed
Non participant observation disadvantages
- May lack validity as if the researcher isn’t engaging in the activity it may mean that they fail to have a deeper understanding of the behaviour
- Researchers also must not look too out of place so that the participants don’t guess someone is watching
Participant observation
When the researcher is directly involved with the interactions of the participants and will engage in the activities that the participants are doing
Participant observation advantages
May be more valid then non-participant observations as the researchers are getting involved in the activity and would have a greater understanding of the activities
Design of observations
1) Recording data - make written notes. Or, video or audio recordings means that you have a more accurate permanent record
2) Categorising data you must define the behaviours you observe known as behavioural categories. For example, if you are observing aggression in children then you must operationalise (define and state how the variable will be measured) what constitutes as aggression for example physical aggression is punching hitting etc., and verbal aggression is swearing, shouting etc.
Participant observation disadvantages
Not fully focused on getting information
May loose objectivity - too subjective/biased as they are too involved with observation which may influence activity/recording of results
Covert observation
- Psychologist goes undercover and doesn’t reveal their true identity - may give themselves a new identity
- The group doesn’t know that they are being observed
- can be participant or non-participant
Covert observation advantages
That the participants are less likely to show demand characteristics as they don’t know they are being observed making the results more valid - less likely to guess the aim of the study
Covert observation disadvantages
There is deception used and it can break ethical guidelines as the participants don’t know they are being observed, there has been no informed consent
Overt observation
- Psychologist reveals true identity and may also state that they are observing the group
- can mean that observer effects can occur as participants may change their behaviour when they know they are being observed leading to invalid results
Overt observation advantages
No deception has occurred with this, can get fully informed consent and it’s very ethical compared to covert experiments
Overt observation disadvantages
More likely to show demand characteristics as they know that they are being observed so they are more likely to guess the aim of the study and change behaviour making the results less valid
Naturalistic observation
researcher observes participants in their own natural environment and there is no deliberate manipulation of the IV
Naturalistic observation advantages
1) participants are usually unaware that they are being observed (covert observation) so there is a reduced chance of observer effect and participants are likely to act naturally giving valid results
2) have high mundane realism as behaviour shown is likely to reflect everyday behaviour, a,so have high ecological validity - results can be generalised to other settings or contexts
3) are useful when deliberate manipulation of variables would be impractical/unethical e.g. if observing children in playground it would be unethical to tell a child to be aggressive but ethical to study normal agression
Naturalistic observation disadvantages
1) impossible to control any EV, means other variables might be affecting the DV other then the IV which could make results invalid
2) problematic to try to determine the cause of a behaviour, especially as there is a high lack of control, so cause and effect can’t truly be determined by naturalistic observations, a more controlled observation would be needed
3) risk of observer bias, due to lack of control the observer may be very subjective & might be very biased when trying to interpret behaviour. These interpretations might be incorrect and could lead to unreliable results
Controlled observations
- researchers observe participants in controlled environment, allows for manipulation of the IV
E.g. in a lab experiment
Controlled observation advantages
1) cause and effect can be determined as the observation is highly controlled, so psychologists can identify whether the IV caused a change in the DV
2) EV can be controlled for this type of observation, so it means the results will be more valid as we can be more certain that the IV is having an effect on the DV
3) likely to yield qualitative data that’s rich and detailed, also increases the validity of the study as the observation is likely to be accurately measuring the key variables identified in the aim
Controlled observation disadvantages
1) low levels of mundane realism and ecological validity because of the high control in the observation, this is likely to be restrictive and means that the results might not be an accurate reflection of everyday life and might not be able to be generalised to others settings/contexts
2) observer effects can occur as participants usually know they are being observed (overt observation), so participants may show social desirability bias and may behave unnaturally so data collected may be invalid
3) risk of observer bias which means that the researchers own views and opinions can influence the recording of the data which then becomes inaccurate
Observer bias
- if observer knows purpose of study then they may observe behaviours that they think meets their aims/hypothesis
- can influence how they record the data which may be inaccurate and subjective
- observers need to be reliable - one way is to have 2 observers - each record data separately then correlate their observations and data together
- if they have a kappa score of +0.8 then they data gained from each researcher is reliable
- known as inter-rater reliability
What are behavioural categories?
Specific types of behaviour that are being looked for in an observation
Two sampling procedures
- event sampling
- time-interval sampling
Event sampling
- observer decides in advance what types of behaviour they are interested in and records all occurrences
- all other types of behaviour are ignored
- there could be human error
Time-interval sampling
- observer decides in advance that observation will take place only during specified time periods (e.g. 10 mins every hr or an hr a day)
- record occurrences of specified behaviour during that period only
- however may be certain times where what your measuring is more popular but you may miss it as it’s not within the specified time interval
Pilot study
- a pilot study is a preliminary small scale investigation of the procedures to be used in the main study, involves selecting a few people and trialing the study on them
- can save time & money by identifying any flaws that can be rectified before the main study starts
- can also help researcher spot any ambiguities or confusion in the information given to participants or problems with task devised
- can be useful to establish behavioural categories and check they are suitable
- can also fix any practical problems like where observers should stand or where video cameras should be
