Observations

• What is an observation?

  Watching and recording someones behaviour either using pen and paper or recording equipment
• What are the different types of observations?

  
  

  • Naturalistic vs controlled
  • Covert vs over
  • Participant vs non participant
  • Structured vs unstructured
  • Direct vs indirect
• What are naturalistic and controlled observations?


  Naturalistic: takes place in a natural setting/environment

  Controlled: these take place in a highly controlled environment
• what are the advantages and disadvantages of a naturalistic observation?

  Positives

  P: high ecological validity

  C: reflects real life behaviours

  Negatives

  P: lacks control over EV’s

  C: reduces validity and accuracy
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a controlled observation?

  Positives

  P: high control over EV’s

  C: increases validity and accuracy of observation

  Negatives

  P: higher control = lower ecological validity

  C: doesn’t reflect real life behaviours
• What are covert and overt observations?

  Covert: people aren’t aware that they’re being watched or observed

  Overt: people are aware they’re being observed
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a covert observation?

  positives

  P: no demand characteristics

  C: high validity as natural behaviour is observed, high accuracy

  negatives

  P: unethical: no consent, withdrawal and is an invasion of privacy

  C: damages reputation of psychology -> future funding may be reduced and less people willing to take part
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of an overt observation?

  positives

  P: ethical if consent is given

  C: won’t damage reputation of psychology -> won’t affect future funding or recruitment of participants

  negatives

  P: demand characteristics

  C: reduces validity and accuracy
• What are participant and non participant observations?


  Participant: observer becomes part of the group they‘re observing

  Non participant: observer isn’t part of the group they’re observing as they observe from a distance
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a participant observation?

  positives

  P: the observer is able to get closer to the group

  C: increases validity and accuracy as they’re part of the group

  negatives

  P: prone to observe bias (subjective)

  C: reduces validity and accuracy
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a non participant observation?

  Positives

  P: less chance of observer bias (objective)

  C: increases validity and accuracy

  Negatives

  P: important behaviours may be missed as observed from afar, reduces validity

  C: reduces accuracy
• what are structured and unstructured observations?


  Structured: observing and recording behaviour using a coding scheme containing categories of behaviour

  Unstructured: observing and recording behaviour using recording equipment e.g. filmed footage, audiotape
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a structured observation?

  Positives

  P: easy to replicate observation, increases reliability

  C: increases consistency

  Negatives

  P: if too many behaviours occur at once, important info may be missed, low validity

  C: low accuracy
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of an unstructured observation?

  positives

  P: reduces observer bias as you can play back recording, increases reliability

  C: increases consistency

  negatives

  P: camera/audiotape can have limited angles, low validity

  C: low accuracy
• What are direct and indirect observations? 


  direct: watching and recording behaviour first hand

  Indirect: watching/recording behaviour from previously recorded data e.g. adverts, articles
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a direct observations?

  Positives

  P: observing first hand rather than relying on previous observations which may be subjective

  C: high in validity and accuracy

  Negatives

  P: observer bias, as they only see what they expect, ignoring important behaviours

  C: low in validity and accuracy
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of an indirect observation?

  Positives

  P: reduces observer bias and you can play back the footage

  C: high in reliability and consistency

  Negatives

  P: observer bias due to selection of resources used, reduces validity

  C: low accuracy
• What are some advantages of using the observational method?


  • high ecological validity, helps identify actual behaviour -> high accuracy
  • They help capture unexpected behaviour unlike measuring only one variable in a lab
• What are some disadvantages of using the observational method?

  • Observer bias may lead to unreliable data and low consistency
  • Ethical issues: participants don’t know they’re being watched so this leads to deception and invasion of privacy
  • If they do know they’re being watched then demand characteristics becomes and issue
• What is a coding scheme/observational checklist? (structured observation)

  A tool used to break up the behaviour observed into behavioural categories e.g. and infant smiling, crying, cooing
• When designing a coding scheme what should we ensure?


  • That it is objective
  • Has no overlapping categories
• What is a coding frame?


  a coding frame represents different behaviours as abbreviations

  Allows other variables about behaviour to be recorded e.g. severity/duration

  • E.g. aggression levels: hitting, biting, shouting can be summarised as H, B, S and further details indicating where the victim was hit
• Coding frame collects both qualitative and quantitative data: do not get confused with coding frame
• what is time sampling?


  Time sampling involved observing and recording behaviour in a series of fixed time intervals
• What is event sampling?


  Event sampling involves observing and recoding behaviour every time It occurs
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of time sampling? 


  Advantage

  P: less likely to be overwhelmed by too many behaviours

  C: high in reliability -> consistently observed

  Disadvantage

  P: important behaviours outside of time interval will be missed

  C: reduces reliability as behaviour isn’t consistently observed
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of event sampling?


  Advantages

  P: easy/simple to record as you can tick relevant boxes in coding scheme quickly. Replicable

  C: high in reliability -> observing consistently

  Disadvantages

  P: observer may miss behaviours if they're happening all at once

  C: low in reliability and consistency
• What does reliability refer to?

  Reliability refers to consistency and replicability, if results are reliable we would expect to end up with the same data if they were made by different people
• Inter-rater reliability is the ability of two or more observers to watch and record the same behaviour in the same way (prevents observer bias)

  How can we ensure inter-rater reliability?

  train observers, agree on categories of behaviour, pilot observation, must be at least 80% consistency
• What does validity refer to?


  validity refers to the extent which the researcher has measured what it intends to measure.
• What is one way of reducing observer bias and increasing validity?

  
  

  • Have more than one observer and averaging the data between them
  • use a double blind technique (where the observers don’t know about the aims of the research)
• What was our group observation?


  To investigate wether boys and girls wear different colours of clothing
• Describe the sampling method and our sample in our group observation

  Sampling method: opportunity sampling -> observed students who were freely and readily available

  
  

  Sample: mixture of first year A-level/vocational/BTEC students, 16-18, a mixture of males and females

  
  

  Materials: pens, coding scheme, clipboard
• (Group observation) outline your procedure: must be replicable 


  • Where: college canteen
  • When: e.g. Tuesday 2pm for a duration of 20 minutes
  • What and how: 3 observers, we decided on categories by having different colours people wear e.g. blue, black, red. This increases inter-rate reliability as we knew exactly what we were recording
• (group observation) behaviours recorded, design features, controls and BPS ethical guidelines 


  .

  • the behaviour being recorded: colour of clothing (boys vs girls)
  • Design features: categories e.g. black, blue, grey and event sampling used
  • Controls: covert and non-participant
  • Ethics: we didn’t break ethical guidelines as we observed students in a public place where they expect to be observed