Observations

Question 1

What is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 1

These take place in the setting or context where the target behavior would usually occur, all aspects of the environment are free to vary.

Question 2

What is a controlled observation?

Answer 2

There is some control over variables, including manipulating variables to observe effects and also control of confounding/ extraneous variables.

Question 3

What is a covert observation?

Answer 3

Where the participants are unaware they are the focus of the study and their behaviour is observed in secret.

Question 4

What is an overt observation?

Answer 4

This is where the participants know their behaviour is being observed and have given their informed consent beforehand.

Question 5

What is a participant observation?

Answer 5

This is where the observer becomes a part of the group they are studying this allows them to gain insight.

Question 6

What is a non-participant observation?

Answer 6

This is when the researcher remains separate from those they are studying and they record the behaviour they are observing in a more objective manner.

Question 7

What is a strength of naturalistic observations?

Answer 7

These have high external validity as findings can often be generalised to everyday life.

Question 8

What is a limitation of naturalistic observations?

Answer 8

The lack of control over the research situation makes replication of the investigation difficult.

Question 9

What is a strength of a controlled observation?

Answer 9

The confounding/ extraneous variables may be less of a factor so replication of the observation becomes easier.

Question 10

What is a limitation of a controlled observation?

Answer 10

They may produce findings that cannot be as readily applied to everyday life.

Question 11

What is a strength of a covert observation?

Answer 11

The problem caused by demand characteristics is removed and ensures any behaviour observed will be natural, this increases the internal validity.

Question 12

What is a limitation of a covert observation?

Answer 12

They have ethical issues as people may not wish to have their behaviours noted down, as they haven’t been able to sign a consent form.

Question 13

What is a strength of an overt observation?

Answer 13

These are more ethically acceptable as they understand that their behaviour is being observed and they have given consent.

Question 14

What is a limitation of an overt observation?

Answer 14

The knowledge that the participants have that they are being observed may act as a significant influence on their behaviour (“please you, screw you effect”).

Question 15

What is a strength of a participant observation?

Answer 15

The researcher can experience the situation as the participants do, giving them increased insight. This may increase the external validity of the findings.

Question 16

What is a limitation of a participant observation?

Answer 16

The researcher may come to identify too strongly with those they are studying and lose objectivity.

Question 17

What is a strength of a non-participant observation?

Answer 17

This allows the researchers to maintain an objective psychological distance from their participants so there is less danger of them adopting a local lifestyle.

Question 18

What is a limitation of a non-participant observation?

Answer 18

They may lost the valuable insight to be gained in a participant observation as they are too far removed from the people and behaviour they are studying.

Question 19

What does the way you record data mean in terms of issues with observational designs?

Answer 19

The researcher has to determine whether they are going to do an unstructured observation (note down everything) or take on a more structured approach.

Question 20

What are behavioural categories in terms of observational issues?

Answer 20

In order to produce a structured record it is necessary to break the target population up into a set of behavioural categories, this is very similar to the idea of operationalisation.

Question 21

What is event sampling?

Answer 21

This involves counting the number of times a particular behaviour occurs in a target individual or group.

Question 22

What is time sampling?

Answer 22

This involves recording behaviour within a pre-established time frame. e.g. looking up every 5 minutes and noting down the behaviour.

Question 23

In terms of quantitative/ qualitative data evaluate structured and unstructured observations.

Answer 23

Structured observations are likely to produce numerical/ quantitative data which means that analysing and comparing the data is straightforward. In contrast, unstructured produce qualitative means its more difficult to record and analyse.

Question 24

What is a strength of an unstructured observation?

Answer 24

They may benefit more from the richness and depth of detail in the data collected, even thought there may be a risk of observer bias.

Question 25

What could be a limitation for the behavioural cateogries?

Answer 25

The categories must be observable, measurable and self-evident, researchers have to ensure that that all possible forms of the target behaviour are included in the checklist. This can cause a problem if the researchers don’t follow this.

Question 26

What is a strength of event sampling?

Answer 26

This is useful when the target behaviour or event happens quite infrequently and could be missed if time sampling was used.

Question 27

What is a limitation of event samping?

Answer 27

If the specified event is too complex, the observer may overlook important details if using event sampling.

Question 28

What is a strength of time sampling?

Answer 28

This is effective at reducing the number of observations that have to be made.

Question 29

What is a limitation of time sampling?

Answer 29

Because it’s only samples of the behaviour it may be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole.