Lesson 2 Observational Tecniques Flashcards
What is an observation
researcher watches/ listens to pps engaging in behaviour being studied.
What is an non participant observation
researcher does not get directly involved with interactions of the pps and does not take part in their activities.
eg observing participants in the gym and the psychologist stands around and does not actually engage in any exercise.
Advantages of non participant observation
The researcher won’t be able to manipulate the results in any way
Participants Can’t show demand characteristics
Allows researcher to see what goes on with their own eyes - can make judgements and observe body language used
Researcher can be more open minded as they’re an outsider looking in - less likely to feel sympathy and therefore produce bias data
More ethical if done overtly - no ethical issues if people are aware they are being observed
Disadvantages of non participant observation
There may be valuable information research may not see
can lead to Hawthorne effect - people act differently as they know they are being observed
May be hard to gain accurate results as watching from a distance
Time consuming/costly
What is participation observation
researcher is directly involved with interactions of pps
engage in activities that pps do
e.g. observing participants in the gym and the psychologist actually engages in exercise and uses the gym equipment
Advantage of participant observation
You get a close up insight on results, and a better understanding of what is happening, which increases validity. Insight - Allows researcher to gain empathy through personal experience . By acting as a member can get insight into their meanings, veiw points, values and problems - gives authentic data
Validity - produces rich qualitative data which shows picture of how people really live. Researcher can see for them selves
Flexibility - more flexible and allows for an open mind. Researcher can follow up different directions/ideas if something interesting occurs - Whyte - ‘learned answers to questions i wouldn’t have had the sense to ask’
Practical advantages - Access to more suspicious groups as can gain rapport and trust - helpful when studying groups like gangs. Also useful to use where questioning ineffective - Cicourel - study of how police categories juveniles through unconscious assumptions it would be pointless questioning them
Disadvantage of participant observation
Could lead to inaccurate or biased data
participants could show demand characteristics
Covert participation observation raises serious ethical difficulties - deceiving people to gain info on them is wrong - or participating in illegal/immoral activity in the course of research
Practical disadvantages - very time consuming - Whytes study took him 4 years to complete, need a trained researcher to recognise specific details, can be very demanding and stressful especially if done covertly
Representatives -small sample sizes as time consuming so hard to generalize from data
Bias - risk of getting to involved and therefore giving bias data, may begin to sympathise with the group so give bias data - Willis giving romanticized view of the lads to show them more positively
What is covert observation
psychologist goes undercover and does not reveal their true identity, group does not know that they are being observed.
Advantage of covert observation
High validity as participants will act as they naturally do
An advantage of covert observation is that it should be high in validity, as people are observed in natural surroundings, and – as they are unaware of being observed – the Hawthorne Effect is avoided. However, a disadvantage of covert observation is that it raises a number of ethical concerns.
Disadvantage of covert observation
Could be an ethical, because we don’t know if people would want to be recorded or observed, and they haven’t given permission
Could be seen as unethical- lack of consent and trust issues
• If the reporter is uncovered then the whole research could be ruined
• This type of research is hard to sustain over long periods of time
• Recording changes in behaviour/ recording general behaviour is difficult without raising suspicion
What is an overt observation
psychologist reveals true identity
may state they are observing the group.
observer effects can occur as participants may change their behaviour when they know they are being observed, leading to invalid results.
Advantage of overt observation
The participants have given permission, so you can feel free to make notes and it is ethical
Characteristics of reseracher
Don’t have to fit in with group
Can make notes not rely on memory
Disadvantage of overt observation
The participants know they are being observed, which means they could show demand characteristics
observer effects can occur as participants may change their behaviour when they know they are being observed, leading to invalid results.
Time consuming
Hawthorne effect
Difficult to repeat
Not always representative
What is a naturalistic observation
researcher observes pps in natural environment
no deliberate manipulation of IV
eg a psychologist watches people shopping at Westfield’s to see whether they are shopping alone or in a group.
Advantages of a naturalistic observation
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. This gives valid results.
2) These studies have high mundane realism as the behaviour that is shown is likely to reflect everyday behaviour. These observations are also high in ecological validity, which means the results can be generalised to other settings and contexts.
3) Naturalistic observations are useful when the deliberate manipulation of variables would be impractical or unethical. For instance if we were to observe children in the playground naturally playing, it might be unethical to deliberately tell a child to be aggressive to another. However, if we saw natural aggression in the playground then this is more ethical as it has not been forced upon the participants.
Disadvantages of naturalistic observation
1) It is impossible to have any control over extraneous variables. This means that other variables might be affecting the dependent variable other than the independent variable. This could make results invalid
2) It is problematic to try to determine the cause of a behaviour, especially as there is a high lack of control. Therefore cause and effect cannot be truly determined by naturalistic observations, a more controlled observation would be needed.
3) There is a risk of observer bias. Due to lack of control the observer might be very subjective and might be very biased when trying to interpret behaviour. These interpretations might be incorrect and could lead to unreliable results (if the observation were to be repeated, the same results would NOT be gained again).
What is a controlled observation
researcher observes pps in controlled environment
allows for manipulation of IV
eg watching participants in a laboratory setting and record their behaviour e.g. induce high levels of stress in participants by giving them a very difficult IQ test and then watch their reactions.
Advantages of a controlled observation
1) Cause and effect can be determined because the observation is highly controlled. Therefore psychologists can identify whether the independent variable caused a change in the dependent variable.
2) Extraneous variables can be controlled for in this type of observation. Therefore it means the results will be more valid as we can be more certain that the independent variable is having an effect of the dependent variable.
3) Controlled observations are likely to yield qualitative data that is rich and detailed. This also increases the validity of the study as the observation is likely to be accurately measuring the key variables identified in the aim.
Disadvantages of controlled observation
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 other settings and contexts.
2) Observer effects can occur as participants usually know they are being observed (overt observation). Therefore participants might show social desirability bias and might behave unnaturally which means the data collected might be invalid.
3) There is a risk of observer bias which means that the researchers own views and opinions can influence the recording of the data which then becomes inaccurate.
What is observer bias
If the observer knows the purpose of the study then they may observe behaviours that they think meet their aims and hypothesis. This can influence how they record the data from the study which might be inaccurate and subjective.
Observers need to be reliable, one way to check this is to have two observers who each record their data separately. They then correlate their observations and data together and if a Kappa score of +0.8 is gained then the data gained from each researcher is reliable. This is known as inter-rater reliability.
What are behavioural categories
specific types of behaviour that are being looked for in an observation.
eg if we wanted to observe young children playing in the school playground, make a list of some behavioural categories that we might observe:
What is event sampling
observer decides in advance types of behaviour they are interested in and records its occurrences. All other types of behaviour are ignored.
eg we are investigating whether people at a conference drink coffee or not. Every time a participants goes to get a cup of coffee (the event), we would log this information, e.g. make a note of the event and what happened.
What is time interval sampling
The observer decides in advance observation will take place during specified time periods (e.g. 10 minutes every hour, 1 hour per day) and records the occurrence of the specified behaviour during that period only.
eg we want to observe people at the conference every thirty minutes. So if we start observing at 1pm, we might decide at 1.30pm to count up how many people are drinking coffee. We would do the same at 2pm, 2.30pm etc.
What is a pilot study
small scale investigation of the procedures to be used in the main study.
