research methods- observational design

Question 1

what are behavioural categories?

Answer 1

target behaviour to be observed should be broken up into a set of observable categories (similar to operationalisation)

Question 2

evaluation of behavioural characteristics

Answer 2

-difficult to make clear and unambiguous
-dustbin categories

Question 3

ao3 of behavioural categories: difficult to make clear and unambiguous

Answer 3

-categories should be self-evident and not overlap, not always possible to achieve
-‘smiling’ and ‘grinning’ would be poor categories

Question 4

ao3 of behavioural categories: dustbin categories

Answer 4

-all forms of behaviour should be in the list and not one ‘dustbin’
-‘dumped’ behaviour could easily be missed using time sampling

Question 5

what is event sampling?

Answer 5

a target behaviour/event is recorded every time it occurs

Question 6

evaluation of event sampling

Answer 6

+useful for infrequent behaviour
-complex behaviour oversimplified

Question 7

ao3 of event sampling: useful for infrequent behaviour

Answer 7

-researcher will still ‘pick up’ behaviours that do not occur at regular intervals
-such behaviours could east be missed using time sampling

Question 8

ao3 of event sampling:
complex behaviour oversimplified

Answer 8

-if event is too complex, important details may go unrecorded
-may affect the validity of the findings

Question 9

what is time sampling?

Answer 9

observations are made at regular intervals, e.g. once every 15 seconds

Question 10

evaluation of time sampling

Answer 10

+reduces the no. of observations
-may be unrepresentative

Question 11

ao3 of time sampling: reduces the no. of observations

Answer 11

-rather than recording everything that is seen (i.e. continuous) stat is recorded at certain intervals
-observation is more structured and systematic

Question 12

ao3 of time sampling: may be unrepresentative

Answer 12

-researcher may miss important details outside of the timescale
-may not reflect the whole behaviour