observation

key terms when reading questions
Reliance on people’s memories of their

behaviour
Social desirability effect
Threatening questions - invalid answers
Interviewer bias
Gap between stated and actual behaviour
Capacity to answer questions

grouping behaviour into categories
Direct observation, not reports or inference, make

it an alternative to survey methods
Aggregates and compares behaviour of everyone in the sample
Uses a cross-sectional research design

observation - a form of participant observation where the situation

is left as-is or is changed (Webb et al.1966)

to intervene or change the situation.
Goals: Describe behavior as it

normally occurs, examine relationships among naturally occurring variables.
Naturalistic observation helps to establish the external validity of laboratory findings.
Naturalistic observation is used when ethical and moral considerations prevent experimental manipulation.
Role of emotions (emotional ties with observed peope|events)

Observation without Intervention

choose from three methods of observation with intervention in natural

settings:
Participant observation (‘observing participation’}
Structured observation
Field experiment

Observation with Intervention

or she observes.
undisguised: people in the setting know they are

being observed
disguised: people don’t know they are being observed

Disguised participant observation helps control for reactivity, one of the main problems associated with observation.

Participant Observation

know they are being observed.
Participant observers may sometimes lose their

objectivity by becoming too involved in the situation.
Participant observers may influence the behavior of people they are observing.

Participant Observation

observe people’s behavior.
Examples: clinical and developmental observations of behavior,

psychological testing

Structured observation is useful when behavior is difficult to observe as it naturally occurs.
Researchers often use confederates to create the structured situation.
Problems occur when observers don’t follow the same procedures across observations or observers, and when important variables are not controlled.

Structured Observation

observes behavior (dependent variable).
There must be two or more conditions

to compare (independent variable).
Researchers often use confederates to create these different conditions.
Researchers attempt to have the most control in field experiments.

Field Experiment

e.g. «3D Shop».

video tapes) or select specific behaviors to record.
The method for

recording behavior determines how the results of the study are eventually measured, summarized, analyzed, and reported.
Qualitative
Quantitative

Recording Behavior

reproduction of people’s behavior.
Examples: videotapes, audiotapes, field notes
Narrative records

should be made during or soon after behavior is observed.
Observers must be carefully trained.
Advantage: Can review the record often to observe behavior.
Disadvantage: Costly, time-consuming.

Qualitative Records

and ignore other behaviors.
Researchers need to decide how they will

measure the behavior.
Examples: frequency of behavior, duration
Recording techniques include checklists and electronic recording and tracking.

Quantitative Records

to use
Categories must be inclusive (cover all options) and mutually

exclusive
It must be easy to operate
Specifies categories of behaviour to be observed and how to allocate behaviour to a category
Clear guidelines needed so that observers can distinguish between behaviour categories
A pilot study is useful to iron out any problems

periods of time, repeatedly
Observe for long periods of time, continuously
e.g.

Jenkins et al (1975): ‘the observation hour’
Time sampling
Record whatever is happening every x minutes
e.g. ORACLE study (Galton et al, 1980)

observe
Sampling time periods
- Observe same individual(s) at different, randomly selected

times
Non-probability samples
- Cannot use a probability sample if there is no sampling frame, thus reduced external validity
Limited external validity, in any case

the time
Focal sampling (most common form)
Observe a specific individual for

a set period of time
Scan sampling
Record behaviour of everyone in the group at regular time intervals
Behaviour sampling
Observe whole group to see who was involved in a particular behaviour

* Latin for "according to a performer's wishes"

consistency (lapses of attention)

Measurement validity
Does schedule measure underlying concept?
Implementation of

schedule
Presence of observer - reactive effect

the ‘reactive measurement effect’, in which the research subject knows

s/he is participating in research, thus invalidating the data:
• The guinea pig effect (awareness of being tested)
• Role selection (participants adopt a particular kind of role)
• Measurement as a change agent (the very fact of a researcher being present)
• Response sets (mostly relates to survey research when the respondent replies to a set of questions in a consistent but clearly inappropriate manner).

Reactive effects are likely to occur in any research in which participants know they are the focus of investigation.

of observation in which the researcher directly intervenes in a

setting and observes the results (a form of contrived, unobtrusive observation)
Quantification of the outcomes is the desired goal

setting
Neglects the meanings and intentions behind behaviour (motives are inferred

but not investigated)
Neglects the social context of behaviour
Generates fragmented data - difficult to see the wider picture

questionnaires
see what people really do, not what they say they

do

It is a useful accompaniment to other methods
study behaviour, attitudes and social context