In this research methods in psychology video will be taking you through the various observation
types and the strengths and weaknesses of each.
I will also discuss observational techniques such as identifying behavioural categories
and what the difference is between event and time sampling.
I will finish by telling you how to check the reliability of results by carrying out
a test of inter-rater reliability.
INTRO So we should start by defining an observation.
This is researchers watching and recording behaviour as it happens.
As simple as this sounds the researcher has choices to make about the type of observation
they want to conduct, and this may depend on the research question they are investigating.
One choice they need to make is between a controlled and naturalistic observation;
A controlled observation is when we control the situation the participants experience
and record their behaviours.
This is done in a lab which helps to control as many variables as possible, giving the
participants the same experience, think of Milgram, Bandura, and Ainsworth.
Well an advantage of this approach is we can reduce the effects of extraneous variables
on the participants behaviour and we are able to repeat the observation and get reliable
results, meaning high internal validity.
However we can argue a big weakness is the environment is artificial, and we may not
see the same behaviour repeated in the participants natural environment.
So our other option is a naturalistic observation.
The participants are observed in their normal environment.
This has the advantage of high realism; the participants should behave as they normally
would, and we can claim our findings have external validity, in this case ecological
validity.
However, the lack of control of means there may be unknown extraneous variables causing
the behaviour.
Another choice is between overt or covert observation.
In an overt observation the participants can see you and they know they are being observed.
This is important when you consider that one of the ethical guidelines is participants
needing to agree to take part in research, they need to give their informed consent.
But of course the weakness with this is as soon as someone knows they are being observed
they will change their behaviour, maybe they will want to look good Infront of the observer,
or act in a way that they give the researcher results the participant thinks the researcher
wants, this is demand characteristics.
So a covert observation solves that problem, the participant doesn’t know they are being
observed and can't see you.
The researcher is now observing natural behaviour giving their research more validity, but of
course the weakness is the research can now be argued to be unethical because the participant
hasn’t given informed consent.
Observational techniques.
Types of observation: And one more choice we should consider is
if the researcher is going to conduct a participant or a non-participant observation.
In a participant observation the researcher will become involved in the group they are
studying, maybe doing the same activities as the participants.
The advantage of this is the researcher has first-hand knowledge of the participants situation,
and the researcher may build a rapport with the participants, meaning they may open up
more in what they tell and how they behave around the researcher.
But in a participant observation the researcher runs the risk of losing objectivity, becoming
biased because they can only see the situation from the participants point of view.
A non-participant observation would involve the researcher standing back and recording
the group without becoming a part of it.
This has the advantage of increasing objectivity but has the weakness of losing some important
findings because they are too far removed from the experiences of the participants.
So they are the types of observations.
Easy to remember and the evaluations as you can see are just reflections of each other.
When designing our observation, we do need to consider exactly what behaviour we are
looking for and how we are going to record it.
First let's talk about operationalised behavioural categories.
When I say something is operationalised what I mean is I am clearly defining a variable,
this is so I can objectively measure it.
If I say for example, I am observing aggressive behaviour in children, that’s a little vague
and open to interpretation, but if I say I am recording every punch, push and kick its
very clear how I am defining aggression.
So, a behavioural category is exactly that, I have a target behaviour I want to observe,
in this case “aggression” and from that I am going to create a list of behavioural
categories that can be easily observed and counted.
This can be turned into a frequency chart to help me record
So now I know what behaviours I will be recording, now I need to consider how I will be recording
them.
In an observation, especially of large groups it would be very difficult to create a full
record of all the behaviour that happens during that observation.
The researcher can choose to use a technique called “time sampling”, over the course
of an observation the researcher would record all relevant behaviour at set points, so for
example each participant for 15 seconds every ten minutes over the course of an hour.
Another option is “event sampling”, this is when the researchers record all the behaviour
from the list of operationalised behavioural categories.
Neither of these approaches to data collection are perfect, with time sampling you can miss
important behaviour that happens outside of the short recording periods and with event
sampling you may need lots of observers to accurately record all participants and you
may not record relevant behaviour that isn't on the list of behavioural categories.
Now after all the data is collected it’s a good idea to show or assess its reliability.
For this researchers would conduct a test of inter-rater reliability.
This is simply using two researchers in the same observation.
The researchers would be given the same list of operationalised behavioural categories
and conduct the observation separately.
After the observation the researchers would bring their data sets together and see if
they are similar.
They would do this by conducting a test of correlation such as a Spearman’s rho, we
will learn more about this particular test much later in the researcher methods section,
but for now all you need to know is its used to test the strength of the relationship between
the two sets of data, in this case observation results.
Most researchers would expect a correlation of 0.8 as showing the results are reliable.
So that was observations, I have 6 tutorial videos covering the 2017,18 and 19 AS and
A-level research methods sections, these videos have worked examples to every question and
are full of exam tips.
Patrons at the neuron level and above can access these, and many, many more hours of
exam tutorial videos, as well as over a hundred printable resources from across the A-level
over on psych boost .com I do want to thank all the students and teachers
who have supported psych boost over on patreon during the development of the research methods
unit.
It's their support that allows me to teach part time so I can make psych boost on youtube
for everyone.
So thanks to them, and I will see you all in the next research methods video, Self reports.