Observation

• naturalistic observation


  observation carried out in the field. this gives you a chance to observe natural behaviour
• advantages of naturalistic observations 


  high ecological validity and the data you are collecting is of natural behaviour in a natural envioronment
• disadvantages of naturalistic observations

  the lack of control means there could be other factors influencing the behaviour/extraneous variables
• controlled observations


  controls all the possible factors which might alter the behaviour, and which might therefore hide the behaviour caused by the independent variable
• disadvantages of controlled observation


  the control of everything normally means the situation is somewhat artificial
• advantages of controlled observation

  there is no extraneous variables, increasing the validity of the study and it is more likely to be scientific as the procedure is standardised and so replicable
• participant observations


  a method of gathering data through observation, where the observers are part of, or are pretending to be part of, the group they are observing
• advantages of participant observation


  you have a good vantage point for your observation, you may be able to see things that cannot be observed by an outsider
• disadvantages of participant observation


  the presence of an observer may change the course of the events you are observing, observers may become too involved in the group to be objective about your observations
• non-participant observation


  where the observer is not a member of the group being studied or playing a part of another person in the group
• advantages of non-participant observation


  you may remain more objective about what is being observed
• disadvantages of non-participant observation

  you may not have the same level of insight into the behaviour as you would if you were a participant observer
• unstructured observations


  the researcher/observer continuously records and reports on behaviour, noting everything that happens
• advantages of unstructured observation

  lots of detailed, qualitative data that gives a deep insight into how participants act
• disadvantages of unstructured observation

  there might be too much going on and so many things to record that the observation is not very successful. the data collected may be too difficult to summarise and present the data and it would be difficult to make comparisons between different participants or situations being observed
• structured observations


  a structure is imposed on the observation in order to meet the aim, make sure they record particular behaviours and the observational systems they will use for recording the data
• advantages of structured observations

  allows comparisons to be made across each observation and for trends in the data to be more easily seen, this increases the usefulness and objectivity of a study
• disadvantages of structured observation


  once you start only noting down some behaviours then you are at risk of missing something important, leading your data to be skewed
• covert observation


  where the participant does not know that they are being observed
• advantages of covert observation


  they are useful because natural behaviour is observed, you are sampling real behaviour uncontaminated by subject reactivity
• disadvantages of covert observation


  may be unethical as you are observing participants without consent, and if participants become aware that they are being observed they may not be displaying natural behaviour
• overt observation


  where the participant knows they are being observed and has either given their consent or is aware of being observed because of the observer's presence.
• advantages of overt observation


  this method makes it possible to carry out ethical research as informed consent is given and participants are aware they are being observed
• disadvantages of overt observation


  participants may respond to demand characteristics or behave differently due to social desirability bias as they are aware they are being watched
• event sampling


  where an even is recorded each time it happens. observers use observation categories or schedules
• time point sampling


  where the observer records what the participant is doing at fixed intervals
• time event sampling


  where a fixed period of time is set for observation
• advantages of time sampling 


  the observer has a manageable way of sampling the behaviour they are interested in
• disadvantages of time sampling


  it is possible that, in the time periods they are not observing, they may miss some behaviours, and therefore end up with data that is not valid
• advantages of observation categories


  they provide quantitative data which can be fairly easily compared between subjects or groups, easily presented and summarised and can also be analysed statistically
• disadvantages of observation categories


  it may give very restricted views of what is actually happening. the researcher may miss important behaviour and the data are not as in-depth as simply observing and recording all behaviour as it is occurring
• content analysis


  when observers code written material or filmed material. this eliminates the ethical concerns that arise when studying human participants