Observational Design
- Created by: rebeccamellors
- Created on: 13-02-17 12:12
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- Observational Design
- Structured
- Simplify target behaviours that will become main focus of investigation
- Allow researcher to quantify their observation using pre-determined list of behaviours & sampling methods
- Make recording of data easier & more systematic
- Data is likely to be numerical (quantitative)
- Analysis & comparisons are easier
- Unstructured
- Observer writes down everything they see
- Produces accounts that are rich in detail
- This method may be appropriate when obs are small in scale & involve few ppts
- May be greater risk of observer bias
- May only record behaviour that catches their eye & this may not be useful or important
- Qualitative data - hard to analyse
- Behavioural Categories
- When target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable & measurable
- There should be no need for inferences to be made
- Before observation begins the researcher should ensure they have included all ways which target behaviour may occur
- Can make data collection more structured and objective
- Categories should be exclusive & not overlap
- Sampling Methods
- Event Sampling
- Involves counting number of time particular behaviour occurs
- Useful when target behaviour occurs infrequently & could be missed if time sampling was used
- However if specific behaviour is too complex, important details may be overlooked when using event sampling
- Time Sampling
- Involves recording behaviour within a pre-established time frame
- Effective in reducing number of observations that have to be made
- However, times that behaviour is sampled may be unrepresentative
- Event Sampling
- Structured
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