observational design

Question 1

What are the issues in the design of observation?

Answer 1

What the researcher would have to plan when doing an observational study

Question 2

What is a structured observation?

Answer 2

Involves pre-determined behaviours and sampling methods which are appropriate for larger observations.

Question 3

What are the strengths of a structured observation?

Answer 3

• easier recording of data and more systematic
• produces quantitative data which is easier to analyse

Question 4

What are the weaknesses of a structured observation?

Answer 4

• important behaviours may be missed

Question 5

What is an unstructured observation?

Answer 5

The researcher writes down everything that they see which produces rich data. This would be appropriate for small observations.

Question 6

What are the strengths of an unstructured observation?

Answer 6

More detailed and rich data

Question 7

What are the weaknesses of an unstructured observation?

Answer 7

• Produce qualitative data which is harder to analyse and record
• Greater risk of researcher bias as there are no behavioural categories

Question 8

What are behavioural categories?

Answer 8

Breaking down a target behaviour into components that are observable and measurable.

Question 9

What are the strengths of behavioural categories?

Answer 9

• Make data collection more objective and structured

Question 10

What are the weaknesses of behavioural categories?

Answer 10

• Can be problematic if behaviour categories are not clear
• All categories of the target behaviour should be included and if they aren’t this can result in a dustbin category

Question 11

What are the sampling methods?

Answer 11

• Event
• Time
• Continuous

Question 12

What is event sampling?

Answer 12

The target behaviour is established and then it is recorded every time it occurs.

Question 13

What are the strengths of event sampling?

Answer 13

• Useful when behaviour

Question 14

What is event sampling?

Answer 14

When targe behaviour is established and then it is recorded every time it occurs

Question 15

What are the strengths of event sampling?

Answer 15

It is useful when behaviour happens infrequently and could be missed when using time sampling

Question 16

What are the weaknesses of event sampling?

Answer 16

Target behaviour is too complex in which the observer may overlook important details

Question 17

What is time sampling?

Answer 17

A target individual is identified and then the observer records their behaviour in a fixed time

Question 18

What are the strengths of time sampling?

Answer 18

Effective in reducing the number of observations that have been made

Question 19

What are the weaknesses of time sampling?

Answer 19

Times, when behaviour is sampled, may be unrepresentative as a whole

Question 20

What is continuous sampling?

Answer 20

This happens with unstructured observations, it is when all target behaviours are recorded

Question 21

What is inter-observer reliability?

Answer 21

It is recommended that researchers don’t conduct observations alone as it is vital that any data recorded is the same or similar.

Question 22

How is inter-observer reliability done?

Answer 22

• familiarising themselves with the behavioural categories
• observing the same behaviour at the same time as another observer, as part of a pilot study
• compare the data they have recorded and discuss any differences
• analyse the data by correlating each pair of observations and an overall figure is produced (correlation is more than +0.8 it is reliable)