Observational design

• Unstructured observation= researcher simply writes down everything they see
• Structured observation= simplify the target behaviours that will become the main focus of the investigation using behavioural categories
• Behavioural categories= when a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable
• One limitation of observation is observer bias. The observer‘s interpretation of a situation may be affected by their expectations. To reduce this you can use more than one observer.
• Naturalistic observations tend to have high external validity as findings can often be generalised to everyday life.
• In participant observations, there is a risk the researcher may come to identify too strongly with those they are studying and lose objectivity. Some researchers refer to this as ‘going native’.
• In non-participant observations, they may lose valuable insight as they are too far removed from the people they are studying.
• Although the use of behavioural categories can make data collection more structured and objective, it is important that such categories are as clear and unambiguous as possible.
• Behavioural categories:

  Researchers should also ensure all possible forms of the target behaviour are included in the checklist.
• Behavioural categories:

  Categories should be exclusive and not overlap.
• Event sampling is useful when the target behaviour happens infrequently. However, if the specified event is too complex, the observer may overlook important details.
• Time sampling is effective in reducing the number of observations that have to be made. That said, those instances when behaviour is sampled may be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole.