Observations Flashcards
Naturalistic / unstructured observations
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
Controlled/ structured/ unnaturalistic
observation
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
Strength of a controlled observation
concent (ethics)
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
A weakness of a controlled observation
demand characteristics
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
A strength of naturalistic observation
ecological validity
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
A weakness of naturistic observation
no control = no replicate (reliability)
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
Overt Observation
Participants are aware they are part of an observation
( gain informed consent)
Covert Observation
Participants don’t know they are part of an observation
EG being observed through two-way mirror
Strength of a Covert Observation
Internal validity (demand characteristics)
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
A strength of overt observation
ethics
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
A weakness of overt operations
Internal Validity
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
A weakness of covert observation
Ethics 😬
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
Participants observations
This is where the investigator becomes part of the sample to gain a better insight into the behavior/study
Non participant observations
Investigator will usually watch participants From a Distance or using a two way mirror
Experimenter bias in observations
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