Observational Designs

Question 1

What are the three main observational designs?

Answer 1

• Behavioural categories
• Time sampling
• Event sampling

Question 2

What is a behavioural categories?

Answer 2

The target behaviour to be observed should be broken up into a set of observable categories

Question 3

What is behavioural categories similar to?

Answer 3

Operationalisation

Question 4

What are the limitations of behavioural catergories?

Answer 4

• Difficult to make clear and unambiguous

- Dustin categories = behaviours go unrecorded

Question 5

What is time sampling?

Answer 5

observations are made at intervals e.g every 15 seconds

Question 6

Strength of time sampling:

Answer 6

Reduce number of observations = structured and systematic

Question 7

Limitation of time sampling:

Answer 7

Unrepresentative = may miss important details out of time-scale

Question 8

What is event sampling?

Answer 8

A target behaviour or event is recorded every time it occurs

Question 9

Strengths of event sampling:

Answer 9

May require infrequent behaviours

Question 10

Limitations of event samplings:

Answer 10

Complex behaviours oversimplified = important details may go unrecorded