observational design Flashcards
what is observational design?
considering how a researcher would actually plan an observational study
what’s an unstructured observation?
when they simply want to write down everything they see, as they see it.
this tends to produce accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail
this tends to produce qualitative data
e.g. the strange situation
AO3: what are some advantages to unstructured observations?
has increased validity as they are very detailed as no important information is missed out as everything is written down when they want to.
AO3: what are some limitations to unstructured observations?
it is very time consuming and a lot of the data that’s collected may not even be relevant to the study.
may also be observer bias
what are structured observations?
if a researcher feels there is too much going on for them to record at all, they will clearly define the target behaviours they are looking for
the researcher uses a predetermined list of behaviours
tends to produce quantitative data
AO3: what are the strengths to structured observations?
they are more structured and systematic so their is less irrelevant data collected
AO3: what are some limitations to structured observations?
the data may lack validity as what is collected is not as detailed
what are behavioural categories?
when a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable
why and when should target behaviours be precisely defined?
they should be precisely defined before the study begins so they can be studied
how do behavioural categories help data collection?
make data collection more structured and objective
what are some key features of the categories?
they need to be clear and unambiguous as possible and its important that they should not overlap
what are observational sampling methods?
sometimes sampling methods are used by researchers as it may be difficult to record everything
the two techniques are time and event sampling
what is time sampling?
this occurs when the researcher decides on a time (e.g. 5 mins) and then record what behaviour is happening at that time
what is event sampling?
it consists the researcher recording an event every time it happens
e.g. ticking a box every time someone hits
