PSYC 2520 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4&5: Participant Observation, Observer-Expectancy Effect, Observational Study
19 Nov 2012
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Document Summary
Beginning behavioral research: a conceptual primer (7th ed. ) Chapters 4 and 5: methods of systematic observation. Qualitative research-- emphasizes spoken words, prose descriptions of behavior, and pictorial data. Observational study-- research that is based on direct observation of participants without any attempt at intervention or manipulation of the behavior being observed . One traditional procedure in qualitative research is participant observation, where the term participant refers to the investigator as opposed to the research participants. Observer bias occurs when observers overestimate or underestimate the occurrence of events or see things that are not really there because they think those things exist or operate in a particular way. Four issues to consider when using self-report measures. Data might not be dependable due to evaluation apprehension (truthfulness of what people report) Self-reported data may not be valid or reliable (can depend on memory-- unreliable) Difficult to interpret scores that are not norm-referenced.
