observational designs Flashcards
what is behavioural categories
when a target behaviour is broke up into components that are observable and measurable
what is event sampling
a target behaviour is first established than the researcher records this event every time it occurs
what is time sampling
a target individual is first established then the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame
what is inter observer reliability
- observations are carried out by at least 2 researcher
- then data from different observers is compared to check for consistency
how to carry out inter observer reliability
- observers should familiarise themselves with the behavioural categories to be used
- observe the same data at the same time
- compare the data they have recorded and discuss any differences in interpretations
- observers should analyze the data from the study . inter observer reliability is calculated by correlating each pair of observations made and an overall figure is produced
what is an unstructured observation
- researcher writes down everything they see
- produces accounts of behaviour that are rich in detail
- appropriate when observations are small in scale and involve a few participants
what re behavioural categories
- target behaviours to be studied should be precisely defined and made observable and measurable
what is event sampling
counting the number of times a particular behavior occurs in a target group
what is time sampling
recording behaviour within a pre established time frame
evaluation of structured vs unstructured
- strecuted makes recording behavior easier and systematic
- data is numerical so analysing and comparing behaviour is more straightforward - unstructured produce qualitative data
- more difficult to record and analyse
3/ unstructured produced rish and in dept data
- but greater risk off observer bias
- objective behavioural categories are not present so may only record data that catches their eyes
evaluation of behavioural categories
- makes data collection more structured and objective
- important that categories are observable measurable and self evident
- ensure that all possible forms of the target behaviour are included in the checklist
- categories should be exclusive and not overlap
evaluation of sampling methods
- event sample is useful when the target behaviour happens quite frequently and could be missed if using time sampling
- if a specific event is too complex the observer may overlook important details if using event sampling - time sampling is effective in reducing the number of observations that have to be made
- may be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole
