Observational Techniques

Question 1

What are behavioural categories?

Answer 1

• dividing a target behaviour (such as stress or aggression) into a subset of specific and operationalised behaviours

Question 2

What is covert observation?

Answer 2

• when a participant is unaware of being observed. The observer may watch through a one way mirror or be hidden in some other way.

Question 3

What is event sampling?

Answer 3

• an observational technique in which a count is kept of the number of times a certain behaviour (event) occurs.

Question 4

What is inter rater reliability?

Answer 4

• the extent to which there is agreement between two or more observers involved in observations of a behaviour.

Question 5

What is non participant observation?

Answer 5

• the observer is separate from the people being observed.

Question 6

What is observer bias?

Answer 6

• Observer’s expectations affect what they see or hear.

- this reduces the validity of the observations

Question 7

What is Operationalisation?

Answer 7

• ensuring that variables are in a form that can be easily tested

Question 8

What is Participant Observation?

Answer 8

• Observations made by someone who is also participating in the activity being observed, which may affect their objectivity

Question 9

What is Social desirability bias?

Answer 9

-a distortion in the way people answer questions; they tend to answer questions in such a way that presents themselves in a better way.

Question 10

What is Time Sampling?

Answer 10

• An observational technique in which the observer records behaviours in a given time frame, e.g. noting what a target individual is doing every 15 seconds or 20 seconds or 1 minute.
• The observer may select one or more behavioural categories to tick at this time interval.

Question 11

What is an unstructured observation?

Answer 11

• the researcher records all relevant behaviour but has no system.
• the most obvious problem is that there may be too much to record.
• furthermore behaviours recorded will often be those which are most visible or eye catching to the observer but these may not necessarily be the most important or relevant behaviours.

Question 12

What are structured observations?

Answer 12

• Observational techniques like all research techniques aim to be objective and rigorous. for this reasons it is preferable to use structured observations. i.e various systems to organise observations. the two main ways to structure observations are using behavioural categories and sampling procedures.

Question 13

What is non participant observation?

Answer 13

• the observer observes from a distance and does not interact with the people being observed.

Question 14

What is participant observation?

Answer 14

• the observer is part of the group being observed.

Question 15

Evaluate observational studies in general?

Answer 15

• what people say they do is often different from what they actually do, so observations give a different take on behaviour than other research methods. such studies are also able to capture spontaneous and unexpected behaviour.
• however, there is the issue of observer bias. it is difficult to be objective; what people observe is distorted by their expectations of what is likely or what they would hope to see. using more than one observer may reduce the risk of observer bias affecting validity of the observations.
• observations only provide information on what people do and not what they think and feel.

Question 16

Evaluate participant and non participant observation?

Answer 16

• non participant observers are likely to be more objective because they are not part of the group being observed. however, participant observation may provide special insights into behaviour from the ‘inside’ that may not be otherwise gained.
• participant observation is more likely to be overt, as participants know they are being observed, they will more likely adjust their behaviour to present themselves in a better light. This is called social desirability bias.
• when observations are covert (unknowingly being observed), there are issues of ethics, because participants cannot give their consent and may feel their privacy has been invaded.

Question 17

evaluate sampling procedures?

Answer 17

• event sampling is useful when behaviour to be recorded only happens occasionally. however, if there are too many things happening at once then the observer may miss events and this would reduce the validity of the observations
• time sampling may not always represent what is happening because certain behaviours do not occur at the times sampled. the observer may miss important things.