PNB 3RM3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Jane Goodall, Habituation, Causal Inference

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
• Course: PNB 3RM3
• Professor: Ostovich

Document Summary

Basic characteristics: get some sort of representative set of behavioral observations that represent how people or animals behave naturally, no intervention, three approaches, qualitative studies, holistic picture of what group your studying, no statistics, describe behaviour, ex. How do chimps teach their young how to use tools: quantitative studies, use statistical analysis to understand behaviour, mixed method, combine qualitative and quantitative measures, ex. Hammer/anvil technique (boesch 1991: stimulation leaving nuts facilitation teaching, mixed methods is good because his numerical data found was not impressive, but his observed data was (interpretation) Langer and abelson / rosenthal and fode / clever hans: observer effect (aka reactivity): observer affecting response of participant, reactivity of participant, change behaviour as result of being watched, ex. Zajonc: can unobtrusive observation (hidden observation), habituation (participants become used to your presence), behavioural traces (signs of use), archival data to combat this. Observational research can be very useful to gather behavioural data due to high ecological and external validity.