Observational design

Cards (12)

  • What is an unstructured observation
    The researcher records any relevant behaviour with no system
  • What is a structured observation
    A researcher uses systems to organise observations e.g. behavioural categories and sampling procedures
  • What are behavioural categories
    When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable
  • What is inter-observer reliability
    Observations being carried out by 2 observers to reduce bias. If there is consistency between the observers judgement and recording of behaviours there is high inter-observer reliability .
  • What are two sampling methods for a structured observation
    1. Event sampling
    2. Time sampling
  • What is event sampling
    The researcher records every time the target behaviour or event occurs
  • What is an advantage and disadvantage of event sampling
    Advantage: Useful when target behaviour happens infrequently
    Disadvantage: If event is too complex observer may overlook important details
  • What is time sampling
    The researcher records target behaviours in a given time frame e.g. noting what a target individual is doing every 15 seconds
  • What is an advantage and disadvantage of time sampling
    Advantage: effective in reducing number of observations made
    Disadvantage: Instances when behaviour is sampled might be unrepresentative of observation as a whole
  • State an advantage of using unstructured observations
    Richer qualitative data is collected
  • State two disadvantages of using unstructured observations
    1. Qualitative data = hard to record and analyse
    2. Observer bias = researcher may only record those behaviours that catch their eye which may not be the most important or useful
  • State two advantages of using structured observations
    1. Produces quantitative data which is easier to analyse
    2. Less chance of observer bias