Observation and natural observation in child psychologyb Flashcards
What are the 4 main types of observation used when studying children?
Naturalistic Structured Overt Covert Non participant
What are observations and how are they used?
Keywords Watching Recording Live Later One way mirror Hidden
Observations involve watching and recording behaviour as it is seen.
Behaviour may be observed live, recorded for later viewing or observed using a one way mirror so the observers are hidden from the child’s view
What is naturalistic observation and how isit used in child psychology?
Keywords
Natural setting
Naturalistic observation is where behaviour is observed in a natural setting for the child such as at the home, nursery or school
What is overt observation in child psychology?
Child is aware they are being studied
What is covert observation in child psychology and what must be gained?
Keywords
Permission
Parents
The child is unaware, but permission must be gained from the parent so they have fully informed consent
What is non participant observation in child psychology?
Mainly used
The researcher watches from a distant
Why could participant observation be used in child psychology
Because the researcher may join a class as a training teacher or lsa so he/she can take part in activities alongside the child
how is qualitative data gathered using observations in child pyschology?
Uses detailed description of what the child is doing
How is quantitative data gathered on child psychology when using observations as an rm?
Keyword
Coding
Cateogrising behaviour
Through coding schemes and cateogrising behaviour which is being observed for example counting how many times a child plays with a toy or girls play with opposite sex etc
What is time sampling and how isit used in child psychology when using observations?
Keywords
Period of time
When researchers observe behaviours for a particular period of time e.g. 10 seconds for every minute/the remaining so seconds they take notes
What is an example of event sampling in child psychology when using observation?
Researchers only record specific events e.g. When a girl plays with a boys you
Why do some researchers use naturalistic observation when researching into child psychology ?
Keywords
Manipulation
variables
Because there is no manipulation of the environment or variables
How did parten use naturalistic observation? Keywords Play Cateogies of play Age
Parten used naturalistic observation when looking at play and found categories of play according to the child’s age
When observing play where might the natural social interaction take place?
To observe play, a researcher might choose a playground to observe the natural social interactions which take place
Why might naturalistic observation be used instead of structured observation ?
Keywords Inteference Contrived task or activity Unrealistic Costly Affect behaviour
In a natural observation there is no Inteference from a contrived task or activity, so are often used when structured observation would be unrealistic, too costly or would affect the child’s behaviour too much
Why did ainsworth use naturalistic observation when studying parent-child realationship in Uganda?
Keywords Months Hours Home Natural
As ainsworth was interested in studying parent child relationship in Uganda, this meant that her observations took place over many months and for several hours at a time and were mainly in home, where interaction is more natural
Why are naturalistic observations high in ecological validity? Keywords Natural surroundings Spontaneous True to life Behaviour Generalised
This is because the children are observed in their natural surroundings whereby there interactions and behaviours with others is spontaneous as it would be normally
Because the children are in the context where their behaviours naturally occur this means it is true to life and the results can be generalised to real life situations
If the child is aware they are being observed how might this affect the study ?
The study would be low in validity as it may affect the validity of the results for example the presence of a video or observers may behave differently than normal
How might researchers experience observer drift and why would observer bias pose as a potential threat whilst conducting a naturalistic observation? Key words Move away Recordings Accuracy
Researchers may experience observer drift where they move away from what they planned to observe and observer bias may affect the recording of the results thus lowering the accuracy of the findings
Why would naturalistic observation be high in reliability
Keywords Researcher bias Controlled Interobserver reliability Consistent
Researcher bias can be controlled for this is because naturalistic observations use more than one observer in every situation allowing inter observer reliability to be checked for and to produce consistent results
Give me another reason as to why naturalistic observations are high in reliability?
Keywords Trained Time sampling Tallying Categories Cross checking
Another reason is that it uses will trained observers who carry out time sampling carefully with tallying and well prepared categories, allowing the results to be cross checked
Why is naturalistic observAtions low in reliability? Key words Extraneous variables Presence of teacher Playground skirmish
Extraneous variables that might crop up in a real environment are not controlled such as time of day, the situation, the set of children and observers
Even in a school playground children’s behaviour may be affected by the presence of a teacher or a playground
This makes them difficult to replicate as identical conditions will be unlikely to be repeated so data cannot be tested easily for consistent results
