What are the types of observational techniques
Naturalistic
Controlled
Overt
Participant
Discuss and evaluate naturalistic observations
Everything is left as it is normally, in every day setting
High in ecological validity, when participants are unaware of observation
Discuss and evaluate controlled observations
Researcher regulate aspects of the environment
Useful for focusing on particular behaviours
Discuss and evaluate overt observations
Participants aware that they are being observed, whereas not aware during a covert observation. Covert observations participants are unaware and therefore more natural, but there are ethical issues
Discuss and evaluate participant observation
Observer is part of group being observed, where as in nonparticipant observation observer watches from the psychological and probably physical distance
Participant observations may provide better insight however nonparticipant observation are more objective
Evaluate observations
Observations show what people actually do but don’t provide an insight into what people think
Observer bias can be improved by having more than one observer and checking inter-observer reliability
What are observational designs
Unstructured observations
Structured observations
Behavioural categories
Sampling procedures
Discuss and evaluate unstructured observations
Observe the record everything which is useful when observing behaviour for the first time
Discuss and evaluate structured observations
The system is used and unable observer to be more objective rather than recording what is most eye-catching or being overwhelmed by too much information
Discuss the behavioural categories
Target behaviour divided into individual behaviours that can be clearly identified e.g. smile showing teeth rather than be happy
Discuss sampling procedures
Record events (event sampling) or record behavioural categories at time intervals (time sampling)
