observational designs

Question 1

what is a structured interview

Answer 1

quantitive data
more straight forward

Question 2

what is an unstructured interview

Answer 2

qualitative data which is more difficult to analyse
more depth
risk of observer bias

Question 3

what are behavioural catagories

Answer 3

clearly defined types or groups of behaviour that researchers use to systematically observe and record what participants do in observational studies

Question 4

advantages of using behavioural categories

Answer 4

more structured and objective

Question 5

disadvantages of using behavioural categories

Answer 5

categories have to be clear and unambiguous and should not require further interpretation.
all possible forms of target behaviour must he included
categories need to be exclusive and not overlap

Question 6

what is event sampling

Answer 6

counting the number of times a certain behaviour or event occurs across a certain period of time

Question 6

what is time sampling

Answer 6

involves recording behaviour with a pre established time frame
e.g within a 30 min time period every minute record what behaviours are happening

Question 7

advantages of using event sampling

Answer 7

useful when an event happens quite infrequently
and could be missed if time sampling was used

Question 7

disadvantages of using time sampling

Answer 7

can be hard to record everything if many events happen at once

Question 8

advantages of using time sampling

Answer 8

reduces the number of observations that had to be made

Question 9

disadvantages of using time sampling

Answer 9

may miss important behaviours that occur that are not within the time frame

Question 10

what is inter observer reliability

Answer 10

when observations are carried out by at least 2 researchers

Question 11

advantages of using inter observer reliability

Answer 11

makes data recording more objective and unbiased
data is consistent and replicable

Question 12

disadvantages of using inter observer reliability

Answer 12

time consuming to train observers
If the categories are vague or overlapping, it becomes difficult to achieve agreement, which lowers reliability.

Question 13

why do researchers need to use inter observer reliability

Answer 13

single observers may miss important details
may only notice events that confirm their hypothesis, this introduces bias

Question 14

what procedure do observers use for inter observer reliability

Answer 14

Observers should familiarise themselves with the behavioural categories to be used.
* They then observe the same behaviour at the same time, perhaps as part of a small-scale pilot study.
* Observers should compare the data they have recorded and discuss any differences in interpretations.
* Finally observers should analyse the data from the study.
Inter-observer reliability is calculated by correlating each pair of observations made and an overall figure is produced.