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Observation

Chapter 4

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Descriptive Observation Methods

• Simply describing behavior• No experimental manipulations• No determination of causality• 4 Types:

– Naturalistic observation– Case study– Survey– Meta-analysis

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Naturalistic Observation

• Description of naturally occurring events without intervention on the part of the investigator– Scientific observation, not just casual

interest– Need to limit our interests (when in a

natural setting, there are potentially unlimited observations)

– Ethology: study of naturally occurring behavior • Often in the wild (in the participants’ setting)

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Naturalistic Observation (2)

• Ethogram– A data sheet providing categories for making

naturalistic observations

• Set up detailed categories of behavior, then count how often behaviors in each category of occur

• Interobserver reliability– Test of agreement between two or more

observers simultaneously observing the same behavior

– Will discuss the statistical procedure later, but often are correlations (-1 0 +1)

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Naturalistic Observation (3)

• Types of behaviors observed:– Mostly animals in wild settings

• Can compare mating patterns in the wild to patterns in captivity – implications?

– Can be human observations• Eyebrow flash (greeting)• Door holding • Neonates – too young to ask questions, so

observe in a scientific, controlled manner

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Case Study

• Intensive investigation of a particular instance, or cases, of some behavior– Does not allow inferences of cause and effect

but is merely descriptive– Very common technique in therapeutic context– Incredibly in-depth– Deviant-case analysis

• Investigation of similar cases that differ in outcome in an attempt to specify the reasons for the different outcomes

• Example: Twin studies (one schizophrenic, one not)

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Archival Research

• Archival Research– Using previously compiled information– Statistical records/databases

• Baseball stats to study temperature and aggression

• Content analysis refers to the process of making inferences based on objective coding of archival data.

• Quantitative analysis refers to classifying events and behaviors into categories to count their frequency of occurrence.

• Qualitative analysis refers to subjective judgments about the content in an archival record.

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Survey Research

• Technique of obtaining a limited amount of information from a large number of people, usually through random sampling– Random sampling: Everyone in the target

population has an equal likelihood of appearing in the sample

– Not that common in psychology, but we do often use questionnaires within our research• Difference b/w survey research and a

questionnaire

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Survey Research (2)

• Sampling issues– Probability sampling vs.

nonprobability sampling– Stratified sample

• Population is divided into smaller units and random sampling is done from the smaller units

– Convenience sample

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Meta-Analysis

• A study of studies• A relatively objective technique

for summarizing across many studies investigating a single topic– Published research– “File-drawer” or “Desk-drawer”

studies

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Advantages of Descriptive

• Excellent description of a problem or phenomenon

• Naturally occurring behaviors• Ecological function: the role that

various behaviors play in adapting to the environment (Function)

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Problems with Descriptive

• Cannot assess relations among events– No manipulation, therefore no determination of

causality

• Anthropomorphizing – Attributing human characteristics to animals

• Reactivity– Unnatural responding due to perceived role– Participant roles: participants’ perception of the

research setting and how they react to it– Demand characteristics: cues available to

participants

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Problems with Descriptive (2)

• Naturalistic Observation– Unobtrusive observations

• hide

– Participant observation• Blend in

– Unobtrusive measures• No direct contact or observation of the

participants

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Problems with Descriptive (3)

• Case Studies– Retrospective in nature– Motivated forgetting (actively

reconstruct past experiences)• Surveys, Interviews

– Response style (habitual way of answering)• Response acquiescence (yea-saying)• Response deviation (nay-saying)• Social desirability

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Problems with Descriptive (4)

• Surveys– Forced choice vs. open ended– Volunteer problem

• Volunteers differ from non-volunteers• More intelligent, better educated, more

cooperative

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4 Types of Validity

• Predictive validity– Can you predict an outcome based on some

criterion?• Construct validity

– Does the experiment measure what you intend it to measure?

• External validity– Can you generalize from your sample results

to the population?• Internal validity

– Do you have causal relationships between your IV’s and DV’s?

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Reliability

• Reliability– Consistency of the measures of behavior

• Test-retest reliability– Give same test twice over a short period of

time

• Parallel forms– To avoid practice effects, you can employ

alternate forms of the same test

• Split-half reliability– Correlate scores from two halves of a test