Observational techniques

Question 1

Participant observation

Answer 1

• observations made by someone who is also participating in the activity being observed which can affect their objectivity

Question 2

Disadvantages of participant observation

Answer 2

-more likely to be overt which means that participants know they are being observed
- can result in participant awareness and the participant will adjust their behaviour to be seen in a better light ( social desirability )
- can also adjust their behaviour to fit it with what the researcher wants ( demand characteristics )

• if it is covert then there are ethical issues involved such as deception, valid consent, privacy etc

Question 3

Non participant observation

Answer 3

The observer is separate from the people being observed

-more likely to be objective because they are not part of the group being observed
- can not provide special insights into behaviour from the inside

Question 4

Disadvantages of non participant observation

Answer 4

-more likely to be objective because they are not part of the group being observed
- can not provide special insights into behaviour from the inside

Question 5

Unstructured observations

Answer 5

• the researcher records relevant behaviour but has no system

disadvantages
- there may be too much to record
- behaviours recorded will only be those that are most visible or eye catching to the observer — does not necessarily mean they are the most important or relevant

Question 6

Structured observations

Answer 6

• uses various systems to organise observations and the two main ways to structure observations is by using behavioural categories and sampling procedures
  -allows study to be objective and rigorous

Question 7

Behavioural categories

Answer 7

Dividing a target behaviour ( such as stress or aggression ) into a subset of specific and operationalised behaviours
- perception of behaviour is seamless so when we watch somebody perform a specific action we see a continuous stream of action rather than a series of separate behavioural components

• in order to conduct a systematic observation like this one the researcher would need to break up the stream of behaviours into different categories — typically known as operationalisation
  e.g when observing infant behaviour it can include things like smiling, crying, sleeping etc

Question 8

Sampling procedures

Answer 8

When conducting an unstructured observation the observer should record every instance of behaviour in as much detail as possible - useful if the behaviour does not occur very often
- However in many situations continuous observations are not possible as there is too much information to record so event sampling or time sampling is used

Question 9

Event sampling

Answer 9

An observational technique where a count is kept of the number of times a certain behaviour occurs e.g counting how many times a person smiles in a 10 minute period

disadvantage - if there are too many things happening at once then the observer may miss events and this would reduce the validity of the observation

advantage - can be useful when the behaviour being recorded only happens occasionally

Question 10

Time sampling

Answer 10

An observational technique in which the observer records behaviours in a given time frame e.g noting what an individual is doing every 15 seconds

disadvantage - may not always represent what is happening because certain behaviours do not occur at the time sampled — the observer may miss important things

Question 12

Evaluation for observational studies in general

Answer 12

strengths
- able to give a different take on behaviour than other research methodsb
- also able to capture spontaneous and unexpected behaviour

weakness
- serious issue of observer bias ( observers expectations affect what they see or hear - reduced the validity of the observation