Research Methods AO1 (Observations- ) Flashcards
What are the 6 types of observations?
Naturalistic, Controlled, Overt, Covert, Participant and Non-Participant
What is a Naturalistic observation and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
-Takes place in a setting where the behavior usually occurs e.g. silence in a library
STRENGTHS
-High external validity as findings can be generalized to everyday life
WEAKNESSES
-Harder to replicate as lack of control over situation
- Uncontrolled variables e.g. extraneous variables
What is a Controlled observation and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- Control over variables and certain aspects of the observation are controlled e.g what room it is in
STRENGTHS
-Replication is easier
-More control over extraneous variables
WEAKNESSES
-May produce findings that cannot always be applied to everyday life (Low external validity)
What is a Overt observation and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- Participants know they are being observed and have consented beforehand
STRENGTHS
-Ethics are not a problem as they know they are being watched
WEAKNESSES
- Higher chance of demand characteristics
What is a Covert observation and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
-Participants are not aware they are being studied and have not consented beforehand and must be completed in a natural setting where participants are expecting to be observed
STRENGTHS
- Removes the risk of demand characteristics and ensures natural behavior
- Increases external validity
WEAKNESSES
- Ethics are questioned as people may not wish to have behavior recorded
What is a Participant observation and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- The observer becomes part of the group they are studying (cannot become apart of every group)
STRENGTH
- Increased insight and increases external validity
WEAKNESS
- Lose objectivity and line between researcher and participant becomes blurred
What is a Non-Participant observation and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- Researcher does not become part of the selected group and remains separate
STRENGTHS
- Maintain objective and psychological distance
WEAKNESSES
-May loose insight and are too far removed from people and the behavior studied
What do researchers need for an observation?
Behavioral Categories (Behavior we are going to record/ target behavior which is sorted before the observation begins)
What are the 2 sampling procedures?
Event Sampling and Time Sampling
What is Event Sampling?
- Count/ record the number of times a particular behavior occurs in an individual or group and record the ‘event’ every time it occurs for the duration of the observation
What is Time Sampling?
-Count/ record the behavior in a fixed time frame e.g. every 60 seconds
-Can observe one person or a group
How do we complete inter-observer reliability in an observation?
-Ideally observations should have more than one observer
- This allows for a check of inter-observer reliability
1) Observers familiarize themselves with behavioral categories
2) Carry out observations at the same time (but independently)
3) Compare results and discuss any differences
4) Compare each pair of observations and if more than +/- 0.8 we can assume we have good inter-reliability
What are the 3 different self- reporting methods?
Structured Interview, Unstructured Interview, and Questionnaire (also a semi-structured interview)
What is a Structured Interview and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- Pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order (usually collects qualitative data)
STRENGTHS
- Easy to replicate due to standardised format
- Easier to analyse and compare as have all be asked the same questions
- Interviewer can establish a rapport with participants before interview (biscuits)
WEAKNESSES
- Cannot deviate from topics or ask participants to elaborate which can limit richness of data
- Participants can lie to make themselves look better (social desirability)
What is a unstructured interview and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- No set questions but there is a general aim/ topic the researcher wants to discuss
- More like a conversation and participants usually lead and participants are encourage to elaborate on answers
STRENGTHS
- Has flexibility and can ask follow up questions which might open up ideas the researcher had not initially considered
- Researcher can establish a rapport between the participants before the interview
WEAKNESSES
- Hard to analyse the data as lots of irrelevant information and lack of consistency between participants and drawing conclusions is hard
- Participants can lie to look better (social desirability)
What is a questionnaire and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
DESCRIPTION
- Pre-set list of written questions and participant responds
- Used to assess thoughts and feelings
- Involves closed and open questions
- Begins with standardised questions
STRENGTHS
- Are cost effective and can give large amount of data and can be quickly distributed to large amounts of people
- Can be completed without the researcher being present
- Easy to replicate and easy to analyse without breaking ethics
WEAKNESSES
- Low response ratio compared to how many the questionnaire is sent to
- Responses may not always be truthful and demand characteristics of social desirability
- Response bias of where participants always tick yes or answer the same and do not read the questions right
What are the 2 main types of questions?
Open Questions & Closed Questions
What is an open question?
Does not have a fixed set of answers and participants can answer any way they want and usually produce qualitative data e.g. ‘why questions’
- Harder to analyse as data and questions can be subjective
- More depth and detail in the data which increases validity
What is a closed question?
Fixed number of responses and can sometimes be another scale and usually produced quantitative data
- Easier to analyse in an objective way
- Lack of detail and depth and decreases validity of results as we dont know why participants answered this way
What are the 3 types of closed questions?
Likert scales, Rating scales and Fixed-choice options
What is a likert scale?
Respondent indicates their agreement with the statement on a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree
What is a Rating scale?
It is similar to a likert scale but instead respondents identify a value that represents their strength of feelings e.g. number scale
What is a Fixed- choice option?
List of possible options and respondent must indicate which one applies to them
