Observations

Question 1

What are unstructured observations?

Answer 1

• the observer records everything that happens which is useful for getting an impression and then developing specific behavioural categories

Question 2

What are structured observations?

Answer 2

• the observer has a specific idea of what they want to look for, they do this by:
  1 > determining the behaviours to be observed and creating behavioural categories
  2 > determining the sampling method to be used

Question 3

What’s a behavioural category and what are the strengths of it?

Answer 3

A target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable
- increases inter-rater reliability
- increases validity

Question 4

Describe an example of a behavioural category

Answer 4

Aggression on a playground can be divided into:
- punching
- kicking
- swearing

Question 5

What are the different sampling methods?

Answer 5

• Time
• Event

Question 6

Describe and evaluate time sampling

Answer 6

-Observe and record behaviour at regular time intervals (e.g. every minute)
+ reduces the number of observations made
- the sample of behaviour may be unrepresentative as some behaviour may be missed

Question 7

Describe and evaluate event sampling

Answer 7

• the researcher makes a tally every time a behaviour occurs
  + useful for infrequent behaviours
• if its a complex event, important details may be overlooked

Question 8

Describe the conditions that structured observations can be

Question 9

Describe the difference between naturalistic and controlled settings for external validity, replication and extraneous variables

Question 10

Define correlations

Answer 10

The process of establishing a relationship or connection (and its strength) between 2 or more co-variables

Question 11

Define and evaluate coefficients

Answer 11

• A number between -1 and 1 which gets stronger the closer it gets to 1
  + they’re useful for studying potentially unethical topics
• it can’t establish cause and effect