Observation

• Researcher involvement types

  Participant or Non participant observer
• Participant observer definition: the researcher joins the participants in the experiment either overtly or covertly
• Problems of participant observer: participant's behaviour may be influenced by the researcher
• Non participant observer definition: the researcher remains separate from the participants and watches them from a distance
• Problems of non participant observer: observer effect- the behaviour of participants changes if they know they are being watched
• Ways to observe

  Overt and covert
• Covert observation definition: participants don't know they are being observed. Researcher remains out of sight or doesn't reveal their true identity.
• Pros and cons of covert observation

  less demand characteristics but unethical
• Overt observation definition: participants know they are being observed
• Pros and cons of overt observation

  ethical but more demand characteristics and participants change their behaviour due to the observer effect
• Structure of observation types

  Unstructured and structured
• Unstructured observation definition: observer has no pre set criteria for recording the observation. Note down all the participant's actions.
• Problems with unstructured observation

  difficult to analyse and disorganised
• Structured observation

  behaviour categories, time and event sampling
• Behaviour categories: criteria is drawn up before. Tally chart or checklist is used to tick off behaviour as it is observed (irl or video)
• Time sampling: behaviour is noted down at pre decided times and is more manageable
• Event sampling: every time behaviour occurs it is noted down (irl)
• Types of observation

  naturalistic and controlled
• Naturalistic observation definition: behaviour being studied is not being interfered with in any way
• Controlled observation definition: behaviour being studied is observed in specific situations