Observational Methods of Conducting Research

Question 1

What is observational research design?

Answer 1

Descriptive research where the researcher observes and systematically records the behaviour of individuals to describe the behaviour.

Question 3

List the ways to observe behaviour:

Answer 3

• naturalistic observation
• participation observation
• field experiments
• contrived observation
• observation of physical traces
• archival research, content analysis and digital traces

Question 4

Ways to sample behaviour:

Answer 4

• continuous sampling
• situation sampling
• time sampling
• instantaneous sampling
• event sampling
• individual sampling

Question 5

Ways to record behaviour

Answer 5

• the frequency method
• duration method
• interval method
• calculating other measures

Question 6

What is naturalistic observation?

Answer 6

A researcher observes behaviour in a natural setting as unobtrusively as possible (e.g. Goodall’s studies of chimps)

Question 7

What are the advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observation?

Answer 7

Advantages
- provides insight into real world behaviour (high ecological validity)
- can observe behaviours that can’t be manipulated
- highly flexible (behaviours, antecedents, consequents)

Disadvantages
- time consuming and expensive
- unfocussed (difficult to explain behaviours)
- potential for observer influence
- interesting behaviour may be missed (no control, infrequent, only see public behaviours)
- hard to examine during observation
- ethical concerns (people haven’t explicitly given consent)

Question 8

How could we moderate the concerns of interference with behaviours and subjective interpretation in naturalistic observation?

Answer 8

• well defined operationalisations / behaviour categories
• train observers
• multiple observers
• video record for later analysis
• Reduce observer influence: conceal observer or habituate participants to observer
• Ethics: observe only public behaviours in public spaces

Question 9

Ways to observe in naturalistic observation

Answer 9

Disguised observation: conceal the observer (e.g. hiding inside a parked car to measure the speed without the awareness of the drivers)

Undisguised observation: habituate participants to observer (installing visible cameras next to rearview mirror)

Question 10

What is the purpose of intervention?

Answer 10

• can cause infrequent events to occur (simulated emergencies, confederates instigating behaviour)
• can facilitate repeat observations of the same behaviour
• can manipulate conditions and make causal inferences
• investigate the limits of an ability
• observe normally private events

Question 11

Which methods of observation involve intervention?

Answer 11

Participant observation
Field experiments
Contrived observation

Question 12

What is participant observation?

Answer 12

• the researcher engages in the same activities as the people being observed to observe and record their behaviour
• i.e. the pseudo patient (being sane in an insane place)

Question 13

What are the advantages and disadvantages of participant observation?

Answer 13

Advantages
- observation of secretive behaviours
- allows observation when there is no other way to conceal observer

Disadvantages
- extremely time consuming
- affect subjects’ behaviours inadvertently as the observer is interacting with them
- lose objectivity
- huge ethical concerns (lying to people, and an e.g. is that an undercover police was hooked on heroin after posing as an addict)

Question 14

What are field experiments?

Answer 14

Researchers manipulate one or more independent variables in natural settings.
i.e. Which jaywalker would you follow (low or high status)?

Question 15

What are the advantages and disadvantages of field experiments?

Answer 15

Advantages:
- causal inferences without compromising ecological validity
- time effective (don’t need to wait for natural variance in IV)
- facilitates repeat observations

Disadvantage
- confounds may decrease internal validity (is what we see due to what we think it is)
- ethical concerns (not everyone is consenting to this)

Question 16

What is contrived observation?

Answer 16

The observation of behaviours in settings arranged specifically to facilitate the occurrence of specific behaviours
e.g. inviting people into a lab decorated as an office to complete a collaborative problem solving task

Question 17

What are the advantages and disadvantages of contrived observation?

Answer 17

Adv:
- do not need to wait for behaviours to occur naturally
- more time effective
- can manipulate IV if necessary

Disadv
- environment is less natural - therefore behaviours may be as well
- difficult to know what features of the environment need to be preserved
- may be impossible to habituate subject to being observed

Question 18

How can we observe behaviours indirectly?

Answer 18

Through observation of physical traces and archival research, content analysis, and digital traces.

Question 19

What is observation of physical traces?

Answer 19

• researcher looks at physical surroundings to find reflections of subject’s previous activity
• can be conscious (e.g. decorations) or unconscious (rubbish)
• may be privacy concerns

E.g. Arizona Garbage project (looking through household garbage to find out food preferences, waste behaviour, alcohol consumption)

Question 20

Advantages and disadvantages of observation of physical traces?

Answer 20

Adv:
- high ecological validity
- no chance of affecting behaviors
- can observe behaviours that can’t be manipulated
- focussed and quick
- inexpensive and easy
- durable to an extent (much wider window to see if these behaviours occur)

Disadvantage
- interesting behaviours may be missed (no control, might leave no trace)
- ethical concerns

Question 21

What are some other examples of physical trace analysis?

Answer 21

• selective erosion of tiles in a museum (relative popularity of exhibits)
• number of fingerprints on a page to gauge the readership of various advertisements in a magazine
• position of radio dials in cars brought in for service
• age and condition of cars in a carpark to estimate affluence
• magazines donated to charity = people’s favourite magazine

Question 22

What is archival research?

Answer 22

Research involving looking at historical records to measure and describe behaviours / events occurring in the past.

Question 23

Advantages and disadvantages of archival research:

Answer 23

Adv
- no chance of interfering with behaviours
- can compare data from different times
- other researchers can look at the same data and draw their own conclusions

Disadv
- not actually witnessing behaviours / witnessing behaviours through another person’s lens (therefore multiple frames of bias)
- limits the inferences that can be drawn

Question 24

What is content analysis?

Answer 24

Study of documents and communication artefacts (images, text, media, manuals) to infer the occurrence, frequency and quality of behavioural events.
i.e. looking at advertisements shown at superbowl to understand the target market

Question 25

Advantages and disadvantages of content analysis:

Answer 25

Adv:
- identify patterns / features not immediately obvious to an observer
- clear and transparent how inferences and conclusions were drawn

Dis
- not witnessing behaviours (viewing through biases)
- analysis may not actually be objective

Question 26

What is observation of digital traces ?

Answer 26

Deliberate and non-deliberate artefacts of internet / digital technology user’s activities, transactions and communications
e.g. woolies change insurance rates by analysing what people buy in the store

Question 27

What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital traces?

Answer 27

Adv:
- extremely large datasets
- data driven approaches can find surprising patterns and making seemingly impossible predictions

Disadv
- difficult to explain results
- serious ethical concerns (gives researchers and companies power over people, difficult to regulate, and who ‘owns’ the data?)

Question 28

What is continuous sampling?

Answer 28

All behaviours that occur within a specified time period is coded. i.e. recording everything

Question 29

Advantages and disadvantages of continuous sampling

Answer 29

Adv:
- don’t miss any important behaviours (assuming we have the cognitive and physical capabilities)
- can see antecedents and consequents of targeted behaviour

Disadv
- expensive, time consuming, often impossible (how do you even record the data if you are always observing)

Question 30

Situation sampling

Answer 30

studying a target behaviour in different locations and under different circumstances / conditions
e.g looking at speeding in school zones (may look at different times of day, different locations, schools in different SES suburbs, driver characteristics (ps, learners, truckies)

Question 31

Advantages and disadvantages of situation sampling

Answer 31

Adv
- observer only has to focus on events of interest (time to record data, less fatiguing)
- enhances the external validity of findings (range of situations, times, locations)

Disadv
- may be expensive to carry out (visiting various locations)
- difficult to pre-plan if first investigation

Question 32

What is time sampling (aka interval sampling)

Answer 32

Observer decides in advance that observations will take place only during specified time periods (e.g. 10 minutes every hours, 1 hours per day) and records the occurrence of specified behaviour during that period only

Question 33

What are the advantages and disadvantages of time sampling? q

Answer 33

Adv
- observer only has to observe behaviours during certain times (time to record data, less fatiguing)

Dis
- may miss important behaviours (infrequent / irregular behaviours, antecdents and consequents)
- difficult to preselect times

Question 34

What is instantaneous sampling

Answer 34

observer decides in advance the pre selected moments when observation will take place and record what is happening at that instant

everything happening before or after is ignored

Question 35

adv and dis of instantaneous sampling (aka target time sampling)

Answer 35

adv
- only has to observe behaviours during certain times (time to record data, less fatiguing)
disadv
- may miss important behaviours - infrequent/irregular behaviours, antecedents, consequents
- difficult to preselect times if first investigation

Question 36

Event sampling

Answer 36

observer predecides one specific event or behaviour to be observed (once per observation interval) and all other times/behaviours are ignored

i.e. focussing on the first cars that took off when the traffic lights turned green

Question 37

Advantages and disadvantages of event sampling

Answer 37

adv:
- only has to focus on events of interest
- has time to record data, less fatiguing

dis
- we may miss important behaviours, antecedents, consequents
- observed behaviours may not generalize

Question 38

What is individual sampling

Answer 38

only one participant is observed at a time - focus shifts to another participant for the next intervaladv

Question 39

adv and dis of individual sampling

Answer 39

Adv
- observer only has to focus on one individual at a time (less likely to miss important behaviours), less fatiguing

Disadvantage
- time consuming and expensive
- if interesting behaviours are infrequent / unpredictable, we may miss one participant exhibiting them if they only did so while observer was focusing on others

Question 40

What is recording behaviour

Answer 40

• what you record depends on goals of the study
• you need: a comprehensive description of behaviours, or a description of selected behaviours
• how the results of a study are ultimately summarised / analysed / and reported are dependent on how behavioural observations are initially recorded
• quantiative or qualitative ?

Question 41

What are qualitative records of behaviour?

Answer 41

• narrative records (written descriptions of behaviour, audiotapes, videotapes)
• should be made during or soon after behaviour is observed, and observers must be carefully trained to record behaviour according to established criteria

Question 42

What are quantitative measures of behaviour

Answer 42

• need to quantify the behaviours we observe / our qualitative records to perform statistical analysis
• we can code behaviours according to precise and transparently reported schemes and then use those codes to generate single-number measures for statistical analyses

Question 43

The frequency method

Answer 43

Counting the instances of each specific behaviour that occur during a fixed-time observation period (e.g. count the number of ilearn posts)

Question 44

The duration method

Answer 44

recording how much time an individual spends engaged in a specific behaviour during a fixed observation period (time spend studying / revising)

Question 45

the interval method

Answer 45

diving the observation period into a series of intervals and then recording whether a specific behaviour occurs during each interval (logged onto iLearn that day)

Question 46

Calculating other measures

Answer 46

Sometimes there will be established measures of the characteristics / frequency of behaviours, but sometimes you will have to create your own.

Question 47

What is inter-observer reliability and why is it important?

Answer 47

The extent to which independent observers agree in their observations.
- can be increased by providing clear definitions about behaviours to be recorded, by training observers and providing feedback on discrepancies
- high interobserver reliability increases confidence that observations are valid
- the percentage of agreement is calculated by (number of agreements / number of opportunities for agreement)
- >90% is a ‘good’ measure

Question 48

What factors could negatively influence inter-observer reliability

Answer 48

• error of apprehending: not being able to physically see due to the physical arrangement
• observer error: inexperience, poorly defined behavioural units, observer drift
• observer effect: due to the presence of the observer or stimuli
• observer bias: expectancies of the observer
• error of recording: poor techniques and equpiment, mental lapses
• computational error: inappropriate choice of statistical test

Question 49

What is observer bias?

Answer 49

When researchers bias determines which behaviours they choose to observe and when expectations about behaviour lead to systematic error

Expectancy effect = when observers are aware of hypotheses for the outcome of the study

Reduce observer bias by keeping observers unaware (blind) of the goals and hypotheses of the study.

Question 50

Influence of the observer

Answer 50

individuals changing their behaviour when they know they are being observed (reactivity)

their behaviour is no longer representative of their normal behaviour (Hawthorne effect)

Methods to control this:
- unobtrusive (non-reactive measurement)
- adaptation (habituation / desensitisation to observer)
- indirect observations of behaviour

Question 51

What is intra-relater reliability?

Answer 51

the degree of similarity between different ratings made at different time points by the same rater for the same stimulus

important to ensure they remain consistent (may be inconsistent due to fatigue / boredom)