observation

• Observation


  Researchers watching and recording behaviour as it happens
• Types of observation


  • Controlled
  • Naturalistic
• Controlled observation


  • Researchers control the situation the participants experience and record their behaviours
  • Done in a lab to control variables
  • Helps reduce effects of extraneous variables
  • Can repeat and get reliable results (high internal validity)
• Naturalistic observation


  • Participants observed in their normal environment
  • High realism, participants behave naturally
  • Findings have external/ecological validity
  • Lack of control means unknown extraneous variables may cause behaviour
• Types of observation


  • Overt
  • Covert
• Overt observation


  • Participants can see and know they are being observed
  • Participants may change behaviour due to demand characteristics
• Covert observation


  • Participants don't know they are being observed
  • Observes natural behaviour, higher validity
  • Unethical as participants haven't given informed consent
• Types of observation


  • Participant
  • Non-participant
• Participant observation


  • Researcher becomes involved in the group they are studying
  • Researcher has first-hand knowledge and may build rapport
  • Researcher risks losing objectivity and becoming biased
• Non-participant observation


  • Researcher stands back and records the group without becoming part of it
  • Increases objectivity
  • May miss important findings by being too removed from participants
• Operationalised behavioural categories


  Clearly defining variables to objectively measure them
• Observational techniques


  1. Define target behaviour

  2. Create list of operationalised behavioural categories

  3. Record using frequency chart
• Observational recording techniques


  • Time sampling
  • Event sampling
• Time sampling


  • Record relevant behaviour at set points (e.g. 15 seconds every 10 minutes)
  • Can miss important behaviour outside recording periods
• Event sampling


  • Record all behaviour from list of operationalised categories
  • May need multiple observers to accurately record all participants
  • May not record relevant behaviour not on list
• Inter-rater reliability


  Using two researchers to conduct the same observation separately, then comparing their data sets to assess reliability
• Researchers would expect a correlation of 0.8 or above to show the observation results are reliable