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6 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Ethics in Observations |
It is difficult to gain the participants informed consent as they know they're being observed.
It also may be necessary to deceive participants in order to avoid demand characteristics.
It is hard to debrief participants in an observation because in some circumstances they will not want to be approached by a stranger and told that they have been Observed. |
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3 main ways of using observation |
Naturalistic-Participants behaviour is recorded in their own environment.
Controlled-Participants behaviour is recorded in a situation created by the researcher.
Participant-Where the researcher pretend to be a participant in order to observe them |
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Validity of Observation |
To test the validity of an observation, measure the same behaviour using method.e.g. self-report, then compare results. The higher the correlation the higher the validity. this is know as the Concurrent validity.
One way to improve the validity of an observation is to conduct the same observation in varied settings with varied participants. Another way is to use a more detailed coding scheme or behaviour checklist.
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Naturalistic Observation |
Strengths Material can be collected about naturally occurring situations which it would be unethical to deliberately engineer.
Weakness It is not possible to draw conclusions about cause and effect because there is no manipulation of an independent variable. |
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Controlled Observation |
Strengths It is possible to control some extraneous variables in the environment. It may be easy to record the behaviour to analyse later.
Weakness Participants are likely to know they are being observed which may affect their behaviour. If the setting is unfamiliar the behaviour is unlikely to be completely natural. |
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Participant Observation |
Strengths This helps to increase understanding of the group and add to the richness of the data, especially if they become a trusted member of the group. There may be access to data which is unobtainable by other methods of ecological validity is very high.
Weakness The fact that researcher joins the group may alter group in some way, therefore lowering the validity. |
