Oberservations

Question 1

What are the other types of Observational methods?

Answer 1

• naturalistic

- controlled

Question 2

Describe Naturalistic Oberservations and give an example`

Answer 2

• observes participant in their natural environment
• no intervention from the overserver
• able to collect both quantitative and qualitative data
• used in lab settings is unrealistic and un-practical as demand characteristics can occur

Example: going to class and seeing the students normal behaviours however to be effective only pick a handful as your unable to observe everyone

Question 3

Describe Controlled Observations and give and example

Answer 3

• can occur in natural or lab settings
• observer intervene to cause an event, “set up” in a way its easier to record compared to not doing anything
• able to record difficult behaviours that occur in naturistic observation but that are more natural than the artificial conditions impaired in a lab experiment
• focus (what you’re trying to overserve) is determined beforehand and a coding is used as a standardised procedure (basically coding is qualitative and quantitative data)

Example: nursery setting but only adding enough toys so that only 2-3 toddlers don’t have a toy to play with and the observer records if the toddlers snatch the toy or ask politely to play with it together (definition for each behaviour to see if it counts or not)

Question 4

What are the 4 different designs that can be used?

Answer 4

• Covert
• Overt
• Participant
• Non-participant

Question 5

Define Covert

Answer 5

Participant don’t know that their part of an observation

Question 6

Define Overt

Answer 6

Participant has given consent to being observed

Question 7

Define Participant

Answer 7

The investigator become part of the sample to gain more detailed and rich data

Question 8

Define Non-participant

Answer 8

The investigator just watches the participant from a distance and nothing else

Question 9

How can observers produce qualitative and quantitative data?

Answer 9

quantitative - tally counts: observer writes down when and how many times the behaviour occurs

qualitative - overserved narratives: takes notes and go back on it to try to collect data and discern behaviour patterns from those notes

• audio/video recording: depends on what behaviour is being observed
• continuous: record everything in detail (maybe with a video camera)
• time sampling: recording behaviour at fixed interval
• event sampling: recording the number of behaviours

Question 10

What are the sampling techniques that used to help to try and record the most important details when continuously record everything and Define them?

Answer 10

Event Sampling - specific behaviours are recorded every time they occur

Time Sampling - the behaviour of each participant is recorded at fixed intervals