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.