Observational Design. Flashcards
What are the 2 ways of recording data?
Unstructured observation and structured observation.
What is unstructured observation?
The researcher writes down everything they see, producing accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail, most appropriate for small scale observations.
What is structured observation?
Simplifying the target behaviours that will become the main focus of the investigation using behavioural categories.
What are behavioural categories?
When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable to produce a structured record of what the researcher sees.
Before the observation begins, researchers should ensure that they have all the ways in which the target behaviour may occur within their behaviour checklist.
What are the benefits of structured observations?
- easy and systematic to carry out.
- numerical data produced- easy to analyse and compare.
What is the advantage of unstructured observations?
Richness is depth of detail collected.
What are the disadvantages of using unstructured observations?
- Qualitative data- difficult to analyse and record.
- observer bias- no behavioural categories, so may only collect ones that ‘catch their eye, may not even be important.
What is the advantage of using behavioural categories?
Can make data collected more structured and objective.
What are the disadvantages of using behavioural categories?
• Requires attention to detail- they should not require further interpretation and categories should be exclusive and not overlap.
• all forms of target behaviour should be included on the behavioural checklist- time consuming.
What are the 2 sampling methods for observation?
Event sampling, time sampling.
What is event sampling?
A target individual or event (behaviour) is first established then the researcher records this event ever time it occurs.
What is time sampling?
A target individual or group is first established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame.
Evaluate event sampling?
Advantage: useful when the event happens infrequently and would be missed if time sampling was used.
Disadvantages: if the event is too complex it may overlook important details.
Evaluate time sampling?
Advantage: effective in reducing the number of observations that must be made.
Disadvantage: may not be representative of the observations as a whole.
What is inter-observer reliability?
Single- observers may miss important details or only notice certain events that confirm their opinions or hypothesis, creating a research bias. To make data more objective and unbiased, observations should be carried out with at least 2 observers then their data is compared for consistency.
