Observational Design

Question 1

What are behavioural categories?

Answer 1

Target behaviour observed should be broken up into a set of observable categories.

Question 2

What is Event sampling?

Answer 2

This is when a target behaviour is recorded everytime it occurs.

Question 3

What is a strength and a weakness of event sampling?

Answer 3

+ Reflects the whole behaviour
Researcher picks up behavior whenever it occurs, which could be missed in time sampling.

• Complex behavior is oversimplifed
  If the event is too complex, important details may be unrecorded, affecting the validity of the findings.

Question 4

What is time sampling?

Answer 4

Observations are made at regular intervals. e.g. 15 seconds

Question 5

What is a strength and weakness of time sampling?

Answer 5

+ The observation is more standardised.
Rather than recording everything that is seen, data is recorded at certain intervals.

• It is unrepresentative
  The researcher may miss important details outside of the time interval, which may not reflect the whole behaviour.