Observations

Question 1

Naturalistic / unstructured observations

Answer 1

Observation where the participant is in their normal everyday environment and there is no researcher intervention no manipulation and it can collect qualitative and quantitative data

e.g., bystander intervention do people stop and help people or do they just walk past

Question 2

Controlled/ structured/ unnaturalistic

observation

Answer 2

Observation where the researcher has set up an event Soviet can be more easily recorded as with out intervention it would be extremely rare to observe naturally

e.g., would people help if there was a car crash in front of them or would they walk away

Question 3

Strength of a controlled observation

concent (ethics)

Answer 3

It avoid problems with consent and deception as most of the time the participants are aware they are participating in this type of observation thus being ethical

Question 4

A weakness of a controlled observation

demand characteristics

Answer 4

Demand characteristics are higher risk in this type of observation because participants may be aware they are being observed therefore change how they would normally behave lowering the validity of data thus having low internal validity

Question 5

A strength of naturalistic observation

ecological validity

Answer 5

High ecological validity due to natural behaviour being observed in its natural setting and therefore it would 100% occur in real life because it is

Question 6

A weakness of naturistic observation

no control = no replicate (reliability)

Answer 6

Lack of control results in the ability to replicate due to the setting of this kind of observation therefore harder to test findings are reliability and therefore would have low test retest reliability

Question 7

Overt Observation

Answer 7

Participants are aware they are part of an observation

( gain informed consent)

Question 8

Covert Observation

Answer 8

Participants don’t know they are part of an observation

EG being observed through two-way mirror

Question 9

Strength of a Covert Observation

Internal validity (demand characteristics)

Answer 9

There is a higher validity as participants are less likely to display demand characteristics because they are unaware they are part of an observation therefore this means that there is a higher internal validity

Question 10

A strength of overt observation

ethics

Answer 10

Informed consent can be gained this means that the study is ethical because the participants have consented to being a part of the study and the understand what this means and therefore they will be aware of their right to withdraw making this observation extremely ethical

Question 11

A weakness of overt operations

Internal Validity

Answer 11

People may try to present themselves in the more favorable light AKA social desirability bias / act in ways that they would not normally aka demand characteristics this means their behavior is not valid and therefore would mean but it has low internal validity

Question 12

A weakness of covert observation

Ethics 😬

Answer 12

The ethics can be problematic as participants at unable to choose whether or not to take part therefore they have not consented and they do not know of their right to withdraw the information from the observation this means that covert observations are highly unethical

Question 13

Participants observations

Answer 13

This is where the investigator becomes part of the sample to gain a better insight into the behavior/study

Question 14

Non participant observations

Answer 14

Investigator will usually watch participants From a Distance or using a two way mirror

Question 15

Experimenter bias in observations

Answer 15

Participant observations will have experiment and bias due to them being part of the sample and the observation
whereas non-participants will have much less experiment bias due to them not being part of the sample and therefore their own experiences will not have an effect on the results

Question 16

Event sampling in observations

Answer 16

This is when specific behaviors are recorded every single time they occur probably in a tally chart

Question 17

Time sampling in observations

Answer 17

The behaviour of each participant is recorded at fixed intervals

for example whatever behaviour somebody is demonstrating at Exactly 30 seconds from the last time we took the recording then we would record that

Question 18

Inter-rater reliability in observations

Answer 18

Sometimes it is useful to have two or more observers if they obtain similar results this indicates good reliability

Question 19

Improving inter-rater reliability in observations

Answer 19

Use clearly defined and operationalized coding systems (to counteract any Observer bias - inconsistency with the recordings of other observers)

Train observers with practice observations

Check inter-rater reliability by means of correlating one’s observers data with those of another