Observation design + Checklist and Event/Time sampling Flashcards
what are behavioural categories?
when behaviour to be observed is broken down into observable, measurable components (sometimes referred to as a ‘behavioural checklist’)
behavioural categories is essentially the same as what? (hint: begins with an o)
operationalise
if you come up with behavioural categories they must be what? and mustn’t what?
relevant and specific and they mustn’t be up for interpretation
behavioural categories may include the use of what codes?
numbers or letters or rating scales
behavioural categories are decided …. to the ……. taking place, the observer(s) then ….. these behaviours.
PRIOR / OBSERVATIONS / TALLY
what is inter-observer reliability?
two or more observers decide on categories, watch behaviour from same place and same time, tally the behaviours, compare their results, looking for +0.8 correlation coefficient for reliability
observations may be recorded so if there are what they can do what?
iscrepancies they can re-watch and agree a consistent interpretation.
a behavioural checklist must be what?
These categories can be easily tallied, they are specific, non-overlapping and unambiguous
name 3 advantages of using a checklist
categories maintain focus for the researcher
enables researcher to put forward a testable hypothesis and results can be quantified
more objective/specific and less subjective
reliable as they are done in controlled cobersvating therefore we can repeat again and again and get similar results
how to deal with the problems of observations?
deciding what to record by creating a behaviour checklist
using time-sampling or even sampling to avoid trying to record everything
what is time sampling?
recording everything that is happening at a particular time interval such as 5 seconds every 30 seconds
what is even sampling?
recording every time a particular behaviour occurs, such as everytime a ppt shouts
what is a strength of time sampling?
makes observing process more manageable so behaviour aren’t missed due to the observer being overwhelmed
what is a weakness of time sampling?
behaviour that occurs outside time frame will be ignored so may not give a complete representation of the behaviour
what is a strength of event sampling?
makes observation process more manageable so behaviour aren’t missed due to the observer being overwhelmed
what are two limitations to even sampling?
unexpected behaviour are not recorded.
it can be difficult to keep that track if all the different behaviour as they happen if these are many behaviours happening at the same time
