observations, questionnaires and interviews

• participant observation - when researcher participates in the activity
• pros participant - develops a relationship with the group or study
• participant cons - researcher loses objectivity by becoming part of the group
• non participant observation - researcher observes without getting involved
• non participant pros - remains objective
• non participant - loses sense of group dynamics
• structured observations - behaviour categories are defined
• structured pros - easier to gather relevant data
• structured cons - interesting behaviours go unrecorded
• overt observations - where the researchers presence is obvious
• overt obs pros - more ethical
• over obs cons - change behaviour if being observed
• covert observation - researchers presence is unknown
• cover obs cons - unethical
• covert obs pros - behave naturally
• controlled observations - place in a lab to control variabless
• controlled obs pros - highly controlled - extraneous are controlled
• controlled obs cons - lower ecological validity
• naturalistic observations - take place in a natural envirionment - rather than lab
• recording data - qualitiative - written notes - video or audio
• categorising behaviour - define and operationalise behaviour
• rating behaviour - rating or scale to classify behaviour
• sampling behaviour - decide how long and how often your going to observe the behaviour
• questionnaires - consider type of data - ambiguity - double barrelled questions - leading questions - complexity
• interviews - how structured - question checklist - behaviour and apperance of interviewer
• things to consider when deciding questionaire questions - clarity - avoiding jargon - sequencing questions - filler question - pilot study