Observations Flashcards
What are participant and non participant obsvervations? What are the advantages and dis advantages?
Participant - participates in the activity under study
Advantage- greater understanding of group behaviour
Disadvantage-participants my act different
Non participant- observes the activity without getting involved in it
Advantage- can remain objective
Disadvantage - looses a sense of group dynamic
What are overt and covert observations? What are the advantages and disadvantages
Overt- where the researcher presence is obvious to the participants
Adv-more ethical as they’re aware
Dis adv-people may change their behaviour if they know they are being observed
Covert-
Adv- participants are more likely to behave naturally
Dis advantage-gaining ethical approval may be difficult
What are controlled observations?
Takes part in lab and the researcher can control the conditions.
Adv-highly controlled and can be replicated
Effect can be established as the extraneous variables are controlled
Dis adv- lower ecological validity
They may alter behaviour if they know they are being observed
What are naturalistic observations?
They take place in natural environments
Adv- ecological validity
Dis adv- can’t be repeated easily
What’s participant observation and its advantages and disadvantages
Participant observation is where the observer participates in the activities involved in the observation
Advantages - researcher builds trust with the participants making them act more natural
Disadvantage- researcher looses objectivity and the interpretation of the behaviour may be biased
What’s non participant observation and its advantages and disadvantages
Non participant observation is where the observer is not participating in the activities of the group
Advantages - the observer remains objective in their interpretation of the participants behaviour
Disadvantage - there may be a lack of trust between the participants and observer which may cause them too act un natural
What are behavioural categories
Categories which need to be clearly identifiable and measurable
Eg happy - smiling , laughing
What’s time sampling and its advantages and disadvantages
Where you recall behaviour at set point eg after 10 second intervals
Advantage - more flexible and able to record unexpected types of behaviour
Disadvantage - behaviour can be missed at certain points
What’s event sampling and the advantages and disadvantages
Tallying how often behaviour occurs from a list
Advantage -Behaviour is recorded at any stage of the observation and certain important behaviour aren’t missed
Disadvantage - however relevant behaviour can still be missed
What is inter rater reliability
Experiments can be affected by bias so researchers should asses inter rater reliability
1. Trained observers conduct the same observation separately
2. Use same behavioural categories
3. Then compare two products of data sets as a test of correlation . 0.8 or stronger is accepted (goes from -1 to +1)
