Research Methods : Observational Methods (Designing An Observation) Flashcards
Explain Behavioural Categories.
- These are specific and measurable behaviours the researchers looks to identify in their observation.
- Devising clear and specific behavioural categories is an aspect of operationalisation.
- For example, a non operationalised behaviour may be ‘being happy’, as it isn’t easily measured. d. But if researchers were to operationalise ‘being happy’, they could break it down into a series of specific and measurable behaviours e.g., smiling and laughing.
What is a Behavioural checklist?
This is a list of all the behavioural categories a researcher seeks to identify in their observations. A good behavioural checklist will have a set of clearly operationalised behavioural categories that are distinct from each other. Eg. They wouldn’t have one behavioural category for ‘smiling’ and another for ‘grinning’ , as these could be easily confused.
Advantages of creating operationalised behavioural categories.
- Operationlaising the behavioural
categories makes it easier to create
quantitive data. If the categories are
clear, then it becomes easier to count
the instances when they occur. Quantitive data is easier to analyse than
qualitative data. - By clearly operationalsing behavioural categories, researchers help ensure the data they collect is objective (meaning different observers will agree on what they have observed), and therefore scientific.
Disadvantages of creating operationalised behavioural categories.
- Researchers may prefer to collect
qualitive data. If so, then operationalised
behavioural categories may act as a restraint, stopping the researcher
recording their impressions of what they are seeing.
What is Event and time sampling?
> Event sampling involves the researcher counting each instance of the behavioural categories on their behavioural categories on their behavioural checklist.
Time sampling involves the researcher selecting a pre determined time interval and recording each instance of the behavioural categories on their checklist that are evident at that time.
Strength of Event Sampling.
This requires the observer to
watch everything that happens, meaning they don’t miss
anythin
Limitation of Event Sampling.
The researcher may be overwhelmed
with data. If there’s a lot happening (especially if the behavioural
categories are complex), then the researcher may be unable to record
everything that happens
Strength of Time Sampling.
This technique offers a way of reducing the amount of data the observer needs to watch. This makes the observation quicker and helps prevent the observer being overwhelmed by the amount of behaviour in the data
Limitation of Time Sampling.
The researcher may miss instances of
behavioural categories that occur in between the points at which they record their observations.
What is reliability?
Reliability is about consistency of a measurement. A reliable observation is one which produces
consistent data (e.g., everyone who observes the behaviour would agree on what happened). In contrast, an unreliable observation would lead to disagreements about what actually occurred.
What is Method 1 for assessing reliability?
Inter-observer reliability:
- Create a behavioural checklist
- Give two or more researchers the same behavioural checklist and have them conduct an observation of the material independently (e.g., 2 observers watch the same video, but in
different rooms). - Compare the tally charts of each observer. If there is broad agreement*, then the
observation is reliable. If there is significant disagreement, then the observation was
unreliable.
What is Method 2 for assessing reliability?
This has the exact same procedure, but instead of comparing the observations of two different observers, the test requires the same observer to complete their observation twice (e.g., watching a
video two times) and to compare how similar their observations are.
