Observations

Observations Our next core study will be an observation. Throughout this lesson, I will be deliberately showing signs of “madness”. You need to make a note of anything I do which you think is a sign of mental illness.

Non-Experimental methods Observations, like correlations are a non- experimental method No manipulation of variables Not technically an experiment Observations can be used in two ways As a research technique As a research method

Observations as a Research Technique Observations used as part of another research method How did Milgram use observations? What other studies have used observations? What about in PY1?

Observational research The entire study is an observation Observing children in a playground Sub-types of observation Naturalistic or controlled Structured or unstructured Participant or non-participant Overt or covert

Evaluation of Observations Read through the strengths and weaknesses, and fill in the blanks Read and highlight the ways in which reliability and validity can be dealt with What ethical issues are raised by observations?

Pair work Person 1 answers the questions on the sheet, while person 2 records person 1’s facial expressions on the next page. When person 1 has finished, swap roles. What difficulties did you encounter when making your observations? How did you feel when you were being observed? Did you behave any differently?

What type of observation? A researcher was interested to investigate whether students continued to work when the teacher left the classroom. The researcher, who was sat in the classroom, conducted a structured observation of students’ behaviour when the teacher leaves the room. She makes a note of any behaviour on a coding-scheme.

Homework Complete question 1 (all parts) Use the example question below (as well as the sample questions I gave you a few weeks ago) as guidance Remember, all parts of your answer must be contextualised!