In one line: An observation studies behaviour by watching it and recording it, without changing anything.
Ask your friends how often they check their phone at lunch. They will say "hardly ever".
Now sit near them for ten minutes and count.
The number you count is usually much higher than the number they gave you. Watching shows what people do. Asking only shows what they say they do.
What turns watching into research
- Planned: you decide beforehand what to look for.
- Systematic: every person is recorded in the same way.
- Recorded: it is written down as it happens, not remembered later.
In psychology an observation records behaviour directly. The researcher does not change anything on purpose, as an experimenter would. She only watches and records.
Take the question do younger children play alone more than older children? An observer could stand in a playground at break and record how each child plays.
Remember: Watch. Record. Do not interfere.
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Key idea: Every observation is described by three choices: where it happens, whether people know, and whether the observer joins in.
The three choices
Naturalistic or controlled
Naturalistic: in the everyday place where the behaviour happens anyway, with nothing arranged.
Controlled: in a situation the researcher has set up, such as a room with chosen toys.
A playground at break time: naturalistic.
Overt or covert
Overt: people know they are being observed.
Covert: people do not know.
A teacher on duty who is quietly recording play: covert.
Participant or non-participant
Participant: the observer joins the group and takes part.
Non-participant: the observer stays outside the group and only watches.
Standing at the edge of the playground with a clipboard: non-participant.
Where · Do they know? · Joining in?
Put the three together to name any observation. Watching the playground from a classroom window, unseen, is a naturalistic, covert, non-participant observation.
The last choice changes what the observer can understand. A participant observer gets an insider's view of what the behaviour means to the group. A non-participant observer keeps an outsider's view, which is more objective.
Do not mix these up: Covert is about what the people know.
Participant is about what the observer does.
An observer can join a group openly (overt participant) or in secret (covert participant).
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Key idea: You cannot record everything. So you decide before you start exactly what to record and when.
Making it systematic
Behavioural categories
The behaviour is split into actions that can be seen and counted. This is operationalising it.
Here: "playing alone" becomes "more than one metre from any other child and not talking to anyone".
A checklist
The categories go on a behavioural checklist: a tally sheet that every observer uses in the same way.
Here: alone, in a pair, in a group of three or more.
Sampling the behaviour
Event sampling: make a tally every time the behaviour happens.
Time sampling: record what is happening at set moments, such as every 30 seconds.
Point sampling: watch one person, note what they are doing, then move on to the next person.
Two observers
Two people record the same scene separately and then compare.
If their tallies agree closely, inter-rater reliability is high, which shows the categories are clear.
Categories · Checklist · Sampling · Two observers
A checklist gives numbers: how many children were in each category. An observer can also write notes in words, which gives more detail but is harder to compare.
Try it first: Use the checklist for five minutes before the real observation: a pilot.
If the two observers disagree, a category is not clear enough yet.
Key idea: An observation shows what people really do. It cannot show why they do it, or what caused it.
Strengths
- Real behaviour, recorded as it happens
- Does not depend on what people say or remember
Limits
- Nothing is controlled, so the cause stays unknown
- Thoughts, feelings and reasons cannot be seen
Each type has a price
Overt
Gain: people have agreed, and can be asked questions afterwards.
Cost: they act differently when they know they are watched.
Covert
Gain: behaviour stays natural.
Cost: there is no consent, and people are deceived.
Participant
Gain: an insider's understanding of the group.
Cost: the observer may get too involved to stay objective.
Non-participant
Gain: the observer stays objective.
Cost: an outsider may misread what the behaviour means.
Overt · Covert · Participant · Non-participant
Two of these limits have names.
Reactivity is the change in behaviour when people know they are watched.
Observer bias is the observer recording what they expect. Clear categories and more than one observer reduce it.
When is it fair to watch without asking?: Asking for consent would tell people they are being studied, and that changes how they act.
So watching without consent is generally accepted only in public places where people expect to be seen by strangers, such as a street or a shopping centre, and only if nobody is named or harmed.
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How this is asked: You are asked to design an observation on the topic of a class practical that used a different method. It is a plan, written for 6 marks.
Your class practicals
- Your class runs four small studies of its own, called class practicals.
- They are an experiment, an interview, an observation and a survey.
- Paper 2 asks about the ones your class ran.
- Keep a short note of each: aim, what you did, who took part, what you found, and the ethics.
Six decisions, six short paragraphs
- The aim, and the type of observation (all three choices).
- The setting and who is observed.
- The behavioural categories on the checklist.
- The sampling: event, time or point, and for how long.
- Two observers and how their records are compared.
- The ethics: consent, or why it is fair to watch without it.
The trap: "I would watch them": Watching is not a design.
Say what counts as the behaviour, when it is recorded and who records it.
Your class practical was a survey. Your class asked 40 students how often they use their phone during lunch. Design an observation to investigate the same topic you investigated in your class practical.
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