Observations Flashcards
What are the 6 types of observations that you need to be aware of?
- Naturalistic OR controlled
- Covert OR Overt
- Participant OR Non-participant
NATURALISTIC Observations:
- Take place in a natural real life environment
- No control over any aspect of the study
Strength of Naturalistic Observations:
+ High ecological validity: ppts are in a natural, real-life setting and thus behaviour displayed is also natural -> can be applied to real life behaviour
Weakness of Naturalistic Observations:
- No control: Researcher cannot establish standardised procedure - thus observation cannot be replicable, which decreases reliability
CONTROLLED Observations:
- Artificial environment
- Aspects of the environment may be controlled in order to observe a phenomenom and reduce extraneous variables
Strength of CONTROLLED Observations:
+ High levels of control: researcher can establish standardised procedure - can be replicated to check for consistency which increases reliability
Weakness of CONTROLLED Observations:
- Low ecological validity: ppts behaviour is based on an artificially created environment and thus may be unnatural -> cannot be applied to everyday behaviour
COVERT Observations:
Ppts do not know they are being observed
Strength of COVERT Observations:
+ Demand characteristics will not occur as ppts are not aware that they are being observed - more likely to display natural behaviour so observation increases in validity
Weakness of COVERT Observations:
- Ethical concerns - ppt unaware they are being observed as they have not provided informed consent and breaks ethical guidelines
OVERT Observations:
Ppts are aware that they are being observed
Strength of OVERT Observations:
+ More ethical than covert as ppts know they are being observed and thus can provide informed consent
Weakness of OVERT Observations:
- As ppt are aware that they are being watched - likely to change their behaviour to meet the aims of the investigation or please the researcher. Behaviour displayed unnaturally decreases in validity
PARTICIPANT Observations:
The researcher partakes in the observation alongside the ppts
Strength of PARTICIPANT Observations:
+ Gain better insight as researcher understands the reasons for even subtle interactions and behaviours amongst ppts
Weaknesses of PARTICIPANT Observations:
- May miss out on information whilst participating, decrease validity of findings
- Being part of ppt group may lead to researcher forming bond with ppt - researcher may have subjective interpretations of ppt behaviour - less valid data
NON-PARTICIPANT Observations:
Researcher does not partake in tasks alongside the ppts, just records information without directly participating
Strengths of NON-PARTICIPANT Observations:
+ Observer will not miss out on information as they are not participating - thus having a good vantage point
+ Researcher is able to closely monitor ppts and record and interpret data in an objective way, increasing validity of findings
Weakness of NON-PARTICIPANT Observations:
- Researcher does not acquire indepth insight compared to ppt observation bc researcher is only watching and may miss reasons why they choose to act in a certain way.
Strength of observations in general:
+ No social desireability compared to interviews/ questionnaires as researcher is not directly interacting with participants
Limitation of observations in general:
- Lacks validity as researcher is unable to determine reasoning why the behaviour occurs
State the 2 ways an observation can be recorded:
Structured or unstructured
What are unstructured observations:
- No specific catagories
- Researcher simply notes down behaviour in rich detail
- Obtains qualitive data
What are two strengths of UNstructured observations:
+ More indepth - ppt behaviour described in detail, understanding in depth
+ All relevent behaviour can be noted as researcher is not restricted by the predetermined catagory
What is a weakness of UNstructured observations:
- No quantitive data, conclusions are subjective
What are structured observations:
Involve deciding on pre-determined behavioural catagories and a recording scheme before beginning an observation
- When ppt performs action, records in catagories
- obtains quantitive data
+ - -
What is a strength of structured observations:
+ Generates quantitive data - thus easier to analyse which can be used to draw objective conclusions
What are two weaknesses of structured observations:
- Limited depth of understanding, only measures instances of behaviour + doesnt provide insight into the behaviour itself
- If researcher sees action relevent to the target behaviour, but has no behaviour catagory for it, the behaviour must be ignored
What are behavioural categories?
Specific actions which help measure a target behaviour in observation e.g. aggression, punching, biting
What is operationalisation of behavioural catagories?
It is required to break up the main behaviour being studied into a set of components: E.g aggression can be divided into verbal (swear, shout etc) and phsyical (punch, kick etc.)
What should good behavioural catagories be like?
- Objective
- Easily countable
- Specific - no overlap
What are observation sampling procedures in an UNSTRUCTURED observation?
Continous observation is used where every detail of behaviour is recorded
What are observation sampling procedures in a STRUCTURED observation?
Once the behavioural catagories have been determined, there are different ways to record data
1. event sampling
2. time sampling
How is event sampling done?
- list of behaviour catagories related to the target behaviour are established
- Once observation starts, researcher records every time an action related to a catagory occurs within ppts -> continues until end of observation
Advantage of event sampling:
+ Don’t miss any occurences of behaviour as ppts are observed the whole time
Disadvantages of event sampling:
- Possible to miss behaviour - researchers need to be vigilant at all times
- Does not help measure longer on going behaviour
How is time sampling done?
- Researcher decides duration of observation (apply)
- Researcher splits up whole duration of observation into intervals
- On the stroke of every interval, researcher observes ppt and records behaviour occuring in that moment
- Researcher continues until all predetermined intervals are recorded
Advantages of time sampling:
+ Easier to do than event sampling as researcher only focuses on the observation on the interval, not the whole time
+ Can help measure behaviour that occurs over longer time period
Disadvantage of time sampling:
- If behaviours start/stop between intervals they will be missed
Defenition of inter-observer reliability?
When they are similar/consistent results within 2 observers
HOW to ensure inter-observer reliability?
- get two observers + give them the same behaviour catagories
- both observers should independently observe the same ppts for the same duration in the same time and location
- conduct spearmans rho-corretional analysis where 1 variable is the score from first observer and 2nd variable is the score from 2nd observer
- if there is a strong positive correlation with a coefficient of 0.8 or more the test is seen to have inter- observer reliability
How to IMPROVE inter-observer reliability?
1) BEHAVIOUR CATAGORIES:
- ensure both observers agree with interpretation of each catagory - can be done through prior discussion + training on behaviour interpretation
- ensure each catagory is clear and cannot be misinterpreted or overlap with another catagory
2) TRAINING:
- ensure observers are trained in observing so they do not miss out on behaviour - can be done by having them practise beforehand using video clips of target behaviour + giving them feedback on observing better
