observational design

• behavioural categories


  structured observations are the hardest tasks before carrying it out is deciding how the behaviours should be categorised. Researcher needs to be very clear on exactly what behaviour theyre looking for.
• the behavioural categories are operationalise; breaking up behaviour in a set of components so it can be measured
• behavioural categories should be:

  objective- researcher should not have to make guesses about about behaviour. the categories must be observable

  no waste basket- all possible behaviours are covered avoiding a waste basket category, in which loads of different behaviours is thrown in because its unclear where the behaviour should be categorised.

  independent of each other- categories should not overlap, meaning that the researcher has to mark two categories at one time.
• sampling method


  have a systematic way of observing behaviour using sampling.
• event sampling


  involves counting the times a particular behaviour (event) occurs in an individual or target group
• time sampling


  records behaviour within a particular time frame
• behavioural categories can make data collection easier, adds structure and they're objective.

  categories need to be very clear avoiding the 'waste basket' category.
• event sampling is uesful when the target behavioural or event happens infrequently and could be missed if time sampling was used. however, if the event is too complex the observer may overlook important details if using event sampling.
• time sampling is effective in reducing the number of observations that have to be made however those instances when behaviour is sampled might be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole.