Observational designs

• What is a structured observation or design?

  • target behaviours are recorded, these are pre arranged by the reaserchers
• What is an unstructured observational design?

  • write absolutely everything down that is seen- good when sample is small.
• What is a strength of an observational design?

  1. produces quantitative data
• What is a weakness of an observational design?

  1. bias
• What is a strength of an unstructured observational design?

  1. provides more rich in depth behaviour as you can observe behaviour
• What is a weakness of an observational design?

  1. observer bias
• What ways can you record an observation?

  • tally
  • write absolutely everything down
• What do you need to do in observational designs?

  • start with your target behaviour
  • break target behaviour’s into sub categories
  • Operationalise the behaviours
  • state what exactly you are looking to observe
• What is a strength of behaviour categories?

  1. allows target behaviours to be identified=easer to conduct
  2. allows for replication
• What are the weaknesses of behaviour categories?

  • behaviour categories might overlap
  • observer bias
  • issues of subjectivity