Week Six Flashcards
Descriptive research design: - Observation - Surveys
Descriptive methods describe:
Who, what, when, where and how. It does NOT describe why because that is an opinion.
What are two approaches of descriptive designs?
- Observation
2. Surveys
What does observation method record?
Behaviour
What phenomena can be observed when observing?
- Human behaviour or physical action. Eg. Shoppers pattern of movement in a store.
- Verbal behaviour. Eg. Statements made by airline travellers who wait in line.
- Expressive behaviour. Eg. Facial expressions, tone of voice, and other forms of body language.
- Spatial relations and locations. Eg. How close visitors at an art museum stand to paintings.
- Temporal patterns. Eg. How long fast-food customers wait for their order to be served.
- Physical objects. Eg. What brand name items are stored in consumers’ pantries.
- Verbal and pictorial records. Eg. Bar codes on product packages.
What are the advantages of observation?
- communication with respondent is not necessary
- data without distortions due to self-report bias (truth) Eg. actual behaviour might differ to what they say.
- Not reliant on respondents memory
- Nonverbal behaviour data may be obtained.
- Environmental conditions may be recorded.
- May be combined with a survey to provide supplemental evidence. Eg. Focus group video.
What are some of the limitations of observation?
- Cognitive (what you’re thinking) phenomena cannot be observed.
- Interpretation (qualitative)
- Not all activity can be recorded. Eg. inside fitting rooms.
- Only short periods can be observed.
- Possible invasion of privacy.
- Observer bias.
What is the selective perception process?
- Selective exposure.
- Selective attention.
- Selective comprehension.
- Selective retention.
What is natural observation?
When it takes place in the actual environment and accurately reflects true behaviour.
What is contrived observation?
When behaviour is observed in an artificial environment, like a test kitchen.
What is the Johari window?
Determines how well you know yourself compared to how other’s know you.
What are some direct mechanical observation devices?
- Lie detectors.
- eye-tracking monitors
- pupil-o-meters (dilation = arousal)
- psychogalvanometers (sweaty handshake)
- voice pitch analysers
- devices measuring response latency
- brainwave measurement.
What are some indirect mechanical observation devices?
- turnstiles
- scanners
- traffic counters
- cameras
What is trace analysis when collecting data?
It is based on physical traces, or evidence, of past behaviour. Eg. Erosion of tiles or carpet to measure traffic patterns, fingerprints on magazine to gauge ad popularity, internet users leave traces of websites visited.
What are some ways we can carry out surveys?
- face to face
- telephone
- computer
- panels
