observational design Flashcards
behavioural categories
when a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable (operationalisation)
event sampling
a target behaviour or event is first established then the researcher records this event every time it occurs
- counting the number of time a ‘event’ occurs
eg counting number of times football players disagree with a referee
time sampling
a target individual or group is first established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame, say every 60 seconds
recording within the timeframe
eg - football match - watch a specific player and note what they are doing every 30 seconds
ways of recording data
- write everything down - unstructured observation
- rich in detail
- may be appropriate for small scale investigations
- simplified target behaviours are focus structured observation
what is a key feature of unstructured observations
continuous recording of behaviours
structured observation eval
that involve behavioural categories - make the recording of data easier and more systematic - as likely quantitative
- objective behavioural categories
unstructured observation eval
- greater richness of data and depth of detail
- qualitative data - harder to record and analyse
- greater risk of observer bias
behavioural categories eval
- make data more structural and objective
- need to be clear and unambiguous
- need to be observable, measurable and self-evident
- shouldnt have a dustbin category
- should be exclusive and not overlap
sampling methods eval
event - useful when target or event is infrequent and could be missed if time sampling is used
- if specified event too complex - observer may overlook important details
time - effective in reducing the number of observations that have to be made
- might be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole
