Observation Flashcards
What is a naturalistic observation?
Studying behaviour is a natural setting where everything has been left as it is normally
What are the advantages or naturalistic observations?
It has high external (ecological) validity
It can be generalised to everyday life
There are few demand characteristics
What are the disadvantages of naturalistic experiments?
It is difficult to replicate
There may be a lot of extraneous variables
Give a famous example of a naturalistic observation?
Bickman and Bushman’s (Obedience to authority in uniform)
What is a controlled observation?
Where the researcher has some measure of control over the environment where the experiment takes place
What are the advantages of a controlled observation?
You have better control over extraneous variales
Easy to replicate
Inter-observer reliability - when 2 or more researchers observe separately and compare their results. There should be a 80% consistency
What are the disadvantages of controlled observations?
Bad ecological validity
The experiment may be subjective towards what the researcher wants to see
Give an example of a famous controlled observation experiment?
Bandura’s bobo doll experiment
What is an overt observation?
This is when the participants are aware that they are being observed
What are the advantages of an overt observation?
Less ethical issues as participants aren’t being deceived
What are the disadvantages of an overt observation?
There may be demand characteristics as they know that they are being observed
Give an example of a famous overt observation experiment?
Zimbardo’s SPE
What is a covert observation?
When the participants are not aware that they are being observed
What are the advantages of a covert observation?
No demand characteristics
What are the disadvantages of covert observations?
Ethical issues as they do not know they are being observed
Give an example or a famous covert observation?
Bushman and Bickman’s (Obedience to authority in uniforms
What is a participant observation?
This is when the observer acts aa part of the group being watched
What are the advantages of a participant observation?
The experimenter experienced the situation which could give them valuable insights of the situation (mainly in field experiments)
Decreased validity because you aren’t observing results that represent the true reflection of the population that you are studying
What are the disadvantages of a participant observation?
You can loose objectivity
Difficult in recording observations
Ethical issues
What is an example of a famous participant observation?
Being sane in insane places
What is a non participant observation?
This is when the experimenter doesn’t become part of the group being observed
What are the advantages of a non participant observation?
It is more ethical and objective
What are the disadvantages of a non participant observation?
You get less insight (mainly not in lab experiments eg in a gang)
You are not experiencing the experiment
Give an example of a famous non participant observation?
The strange situation
What is a structured observation?
This is when the researcher determines precisely what behaviours are to be observed and uses a standardised checklist to record the frequency with which they are observed within a specific time frame
What are the advantages of structured observations?
It is easier to gather relevant data because you know what you are looking for
All behaviour is recorded
What are the disadvantages of a structured observation?
Interesting behaviours could go unrecorded because they were not pre-defined as importsnt
Its not controlled or repeatable
Give an example of a famous structured observation?
The strange situation
What is an unstructured observation?
This is when the observer recalls all relevant behaviour but has no system
What are the advantages of unstructured observations?
Interesting behaviours are less likely to be missed as certain behaviours weren’t predefined as important
What are the disadvantages or unstructured observations?
It is harder to gather relevant data as you don’t know what you are looking for
Give an example of a famous unstructured observation?
Zimbardo’s SPE
What is event sampling?
This is when you are counting the number of times a certain behaviour (or event) occurs in a target individual/s
What is time sampling?
This is when you are recording behaviours in a giving time frame
What is inter-rater reliability?
Consistency across our behavioural categories observed by 2 separate researchers. For the research to be valid you want to see an agreement rate of 80%
What should all observers do?
How can this be achieved?
Give consistent results regardless of who administers it. This can be assesed by corrlating the scores that each researcher produces and comparing them (aka inter-rater reliability)
There should be a 80% agreement rate at least for research to be valid
How would you fully describe an experiment?
(Covert/Overt), (Non participant/Participant),(controlled/Naturalistic) Experiment
Define behavioural categories?
Categories defined by the researcher to observe, during the observation
Give an example of event sampling?
Being sane in insane places
Give an example of a famous experiment where time sampling was used?
The strange situation
How can we improve inter rater reliability?
You get multiple people to test it
