Observation

• Covert - participants not aware they are being observed
• Overt - participants aware they are being observed
• Structured observation - setting/situation manipulated, same for every participant
• Naturalistic observation - participants in natural environmemt
• Event sampling - recording every time the behaviour happens
• Time sampling - records behaviour happening after a certain amount of time
• One strength of covert observations is higher ecological validity due to no demand characteristics
• A weakness of covert observations is that it may be unethical as people have not given consent
• One strength of overt observations is that the participants consent is given
• A weakness of overt observations is that they have lower ecological validity due demand characteristics
• A participant observation is when the researcher joins in with the group being observed
• One strength of participant observation is that it can give special insights that wouldn't be seen from outside the group
• One weakness of participant observation is that the reasercher may develop a bias towards the group they are observing
• One strength of non participant observation is that the results are more objective as the observer is not biased
• One weakness of non participant observation is that important Information may be missed