1. Research Methods

2.  To have an understanding of observation techniques.  To know the strength's and limitations of this type of study.

3.  In pairs Imagine that you were going into the Big Brother house.  Brainstorm ways that you would change your behaviour.  What wouldn’t you do?  What would you do?  Discuss in pairs.  5 minutes.  http://www.online-stopwatch.com/bomb- countdown/ http://www.online-stopwatch.com/bomb- countdown/

4.  When conducting participative observational research the observer must be involved in the study groups everyday activities. They will notice how they behave and how they speak.  A Number of issues can arise through this method.

5.  Non- participant: watches from a distance and is not directly involved with participants.  Participant : Researcher interacts with the study group being observed.  Two types of participant observation: 1) Covert – subjects do not know they are being studied. 2) Overt - Subjects are aware they are being studied.

6. Research ethics :Duty of care the researcher owes to participants. Ethical principles :  Participants should be fully informed.  Participants should not be harmed.  Participants should not be specifically identified.

7.  This is a conflict between the ethical principles and the aim of the research.  If the researcher asks for consent to observe the participant's then they may act differently – Demand characteristics.  If they don’t ask and participants are being observed they may act more naturally.

8.  Participant observation doesn't work unless the researcher gains access to the group.  Many groups don't want to be studied.  May be hard to get a true representation of the group.  Participant observations maybe more effective as a longitudinal study.

9.  Researchers want to observe people within their natural environment.  They may want to take notes of what they say and do but also they may want to record information- this can be an ethical issue.  Sometimes the observer must play an active role within the group rather in order to gain more information.

10.  Getting access – You may not be able to access the environment you wish to observe.  Staying in - hard to maintain trust and keep up your false identity.  Getting out : Not easy to stop participating with group.

11.  Sampling observational data – Event sampling (keeps count each time a behaviour occurs – problems with this? Inter-rater reliability?) and time sampling (records behaviours during set time intervals)  Unstructured observations (records all relevant behaviour but has no system – like Rosenhan)  Structured observations (need to develop behavioural categories like Bandura)

13.  High Validity  Can study social interaction both verbal and non verbal.  Empathy  Researcher can see from the same perspective as the group.  Develops trust therefore more information could be shared. Revealing secrets etc.

14.  Low reliability.  Hard to replicate.  Often samples are not representative- difficult to generalise.  Time consuming  Lots of pressure on individual  Data will be hard to quantify.

15. Design your own observational study. Include : Who you are going to observe. What your looking for. Benefits of this type of study. Problems you may face – ethics.