Quick quiz on sampling methods!

Name one advantage of volunteer sampling

A study took place in a street where passers-by were

instructed to pick up litter by either a man in a security

guard’s uniform, a man in a milkman’s uniform or a man in

no uniform. Which sort of sampling did they use?

Here is a famous advert asking for participants:

Which type of sampling is it?

Which sampling method attempts to give an equal representation?

Which of these is random?

A – a researcher selects every tenth person on a computer database (in alphabetical order)

B – a researcher puts all the names of the people into a hat and pulls out 20

Which sampling technique is biased as participants are likely to have a reason for wanting to do the expt?

This is an example of which technique:

Each participant is given a number and then participants are selected using a chance

number generator.

Give one advantage of using an opportunity sample.

This type of sample ensures that every member of the target

population has an equal chance of being picked

You go to the common room and put up a notice asking for people to take part in a memory expt in the Library where you go and wait. What sort of

sampling is this?

Learning Objectives

To describe naturalistic observations and controlled observations

To describe the difference between participant and non-participant observation

To identify strengths and weaknesses of different observational techniques

To identify behavioural categories in given experiments

Observational ResearchNatural vs. controlled:Natural: Here spontaneous behaviour is recorded in a natural setting.

Controlled: behaviour is observed under controlled laboratory conditions

Participant vs. non-participant:Participant observation is where observers become actively involved in the behaviour of those being studied – the real p’s may or may not be aware who the observer is.

Non-participant observation is where researchers observe from a distance.

What type of observation is this?Rosenhan (1973)Pretended to hear voices to be admitted to

a mental hospitalOnce admitted, he observed the behaviour

of staff towards patients

What type of observation is this?Goodall (1960)Observed Chimpanzees in the jungle and

found that they use a grass stem as a tool for removing termites from a termite mound

What type of observation is this?Bandura (1961)Bobo doll experiment – researchers

observed children’s behaviour towards the doll through one-way glass

What type of observation is this?

A research observes a participant on a treadmill and prevents them from drinking any water to see how their behaviour changes and how long they can exercise for

Need to be able to evaluate controlled and natural observations

Natural or Controlled?

High in ecological validity – real-life setting so can be generalised to other settings

Natural or Controlled?There is control over extraneous variables –

more sure that the IV is causing the DV

Natural or Controlled?Little control over extraneous variables –

not necessarily the IV causing the DV

Natural or Controlled?Low ecological validity - Observed

behaviour may not be a true reflection of what occurs and may be down to participants behaving in a way they think the experimenter wants them to

Behavioural Categories

Needed so that the observer can count the number of times a particular behaviour occurs

E.g. observing children's aggressive behaviour

Categories might be:- Angry shouting at another child- Provoked hitting of another child- Unprovoked hitting of another child

Designing an observational study

For the exam you need to know how to design behavioural categories for an

observational study

So we’re going to have a go!

Let’s have a go…There will be a difference in the number of

intimate behaviours between dates in the light and dates in the dark

Behavioural categories?

Condition 1:Date in the

Light

Condition 2:Date in the

Dark

Summary questions

What is a natural observation?What is a controlled observation?What is participant observation?What is non-participant observation?What do we mean by behavioural

categories?Give an example of a behaviour category

when observing “sociability”