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Unobtrusive Observational Methods
Researchers can learn about people’s behavior by looking at evidence of their past behavior. These methods are called nonreactive, because people can not react to being observed because: The researcher is looking at their past behavior using Physical traces Archival Records
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Classification of Observational Methods
Direct Observation Indirect (Unobtrusive) Observation Observation without Intervention Observation with Intervention Physical Traces Archival Records Participant Observation Structured Observation Field Experiment Use traces Natural Controlled Products Running Record Episodic Record © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Two Unobtrusive Observational Methods
Physical traces are the remnants, fragments, and products of past behavior Use Traces Natural Controlled Products Archival records are the public and private documents that describe the activities of individuals, institutions, governments, and other groups.
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Physical Traces Physical trace measures are obtained indirectly — people are not present when the data are collected Two types of physical traces: Use Traces Evidence of use or nonuse Measured in controlled or natural Products owned by individuals produced by culture
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Physical Traces: Use Traces
Use traces: Evidence that remains from the use or nonuse of an item. Example of use: beverage containers in campus recycling bins (soda, juice, water) What do these containers tell us about the health habits of college students? Example of nonuse: books unopened What does this tell us about study habits? Example: accuracy of clock settings What does it tell us about punctuality?
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Physical Traces : Use Traces
Physical-use traces are also classified as either natural or controlled (planned) Natural-use traces are produced without any intervention by the investigator. Example: analyze the amount of highlighting in students’ textbooks to investigate which material is read. What does this analysis tell us about students’ studying? About their learning of the material?
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Physical Traces : Use Traces
Physical-use traces Controlled-use traces are produced with some degree of intervention or manipulation by the investigator. Example: Place tiny glue seals between pages of texts prior to their purchase. Analyze the textbooks at the end of the semester to determine which pages have been opened (i.e., unsealed). What does this analysis tell us about students’ studying?
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Physical Trace Measures: Problems and Limitations
Are physical traces valid measures of behavior? Other inferences may be possible based on the physical evidence. Verified through independent sources of evidence Are there biases in physical traces? Biases can exist in the manner physical traces are created or the manner in which they survive. Answers to both these questions indicate we need multimethod approaches to understanding behavior. When possible, researchers should obtain supplementary evidence. To the extent that different measures of behavior agree (or converge), we can be more confident in our conclusions.
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Physical Traces : Products
Products: Is the other category of physical trace Creations, constructions, or other artifacts of earlier behavior Example: Television programs such as Howdy Doody, Sesame Street, Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, Power Rangers, Pokemon What do children’s television programs tell us about our culture?
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FIGURE 4.5 Many cultures have used tattoos and body piercings as a means of self-expression and group identification.
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Physical Trace Research Example
Interest in studying behavior of college students Specific Research Question: how much do students’ use course material placed on closed reserve in the library? Collect data using physical-trace with either natural-use trace such as highlighting And Or controlled (planned) use trace such as glued pages Products
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Physical Trace Research Example
Archaeology studies of past cultures through the material (physical) remains people left behind. Artifacts “products” must be carefully removed for further analysis and study. records—including photographs, drawings, and detailed notes—are made of all artifacts “At Isampur, a quarry-cum-workshop site has been identified where all stages in the Acheulian tool manufacturing process at the raw material source” Recent findings on the Acheulian of the Hunsgi and Baichbal valleys, Karnataka, with special reference to the Isampur excavation and its dating. K. Paddayya (2002) CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 83, NO. 5
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Acheulean: tool industry characterized by roughly made hand-axes found at St. Acheul, France. This type of toolmaking occurred about mya.
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Physical Trace Research Problems
Validity Truthfulness of the evidence Verify through independent evidence Need Convergent evidence Bias In the way evidence is laid down More Sprite then Coke cans in the trash because? In the manner in which evidence survives over time Amount of highlighting in a textbook
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Crop Circles
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Archival Records Archival records are the public and private documents of individuals, institutions, governments, and other groups. Running records (e.g., your transcript) Episodic records of specific events (e.g., your graduation). Data obtained from these records are nonreactive because people’s behavior is observed indirectly.
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Archival Records Archival data are used to:
test hypotheses as part of a multimethod approach, test the external validity of laboratory findings (i.e., whether findings generalize to real-world settings), test hypotheses about past behavior, and assess the effect of a natural treatment.
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Archival Records Natural treatments are naturally occurring events that impact society and individuals. Examples: drastic changes in the stock market, acts of terrorism, election of a new president (society level) death of a parent, divorce, graduation (individual level). Analysis of archival data can reveal effects of natural treatments on people’s behavior.
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BOX 4.3 THE SCIENCE OF FREAKONOMICS
Do school teachers cheat on tests so that they and their students will look good? Do police really lower crime rates? Why does capital punishment not deter criminals? Which is more dangerous to your child: the family owning a swimming pool or a gun? Why are doctors so bad at washing their hands? What’s the best way to catch a terrorist? Are people hard-wired for altruism or selfi shness? Why is chemotherapy prescribed so often if it’s so ineffective? These questions, and others, were asked by the maverick social scientist, Steven D. Levitt, in his best-selling books, Freakonomics and Super- Freakonomics (Levitt & Dubner, 2005; 2009). The answers he gives come from archival analyses of student test scores, sports records, crime statistics, birth and death statistics, and much more. We won’t give away all the answers based on this clever researcher’s mining of society’s archives, but we will say that in this era of high-stakes testing, public school teachers sometimes cheat, and if you own both a gun and a swimming pool, your child is 100 times more likely to die by drowning than by gunplay.
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Archival Records Problems
Possible problems in archival records Selective deposit Only some information is recorded High school yearbook Public statements by politicians Selective survival Some records are lost, damaged or removed Example: When students drop a course within a certain time period, the record of their ever being in the class is removed from the transcript. Serious when it is selective Fire in the vice presidents office Spurious relationships Coincidental occurrence of event New laws and reduced crime rates Seek converging evidence using multimethod approach.
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The Multimethod Approach
Unobtrusive measures contribute to a multimethod approach to understanding behavior and mental processes. A multimethod approach means that researchers use a variety of measures to examine a research question: Direct observation Surveys Unobtrusive measures
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The Multimethod Approach
Research findings based on a single method for making observations may be biased because of characteristics of the measurement process. Because direct observation and survey methods can be reactive (i.e., people react to being observed), unobtrusive measures provide an important alternative for gaining information about people.
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Recording Behavior Goals of observational research determine
Type of Record Comprehensive Select specific behaviors Type of analysis based on Qualitative Data Quantitative Data How you choose to record behavior determines how the results are measured, summarized, analyzed, and reported
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Comprehensive Records
Narrative records Sometimes erroneously called Qualitative Records Usually produces Qualitative data which is just a description Narrative records could be code to produce quantitative data Researchers use narrative records when they want a complete “comprehensive” reproduction of people’s behavior. Field Notes: Written descriptions of behavior Less comprehensive then recordings Focus on behavior and settings related to the hypothesis Audio Recordings Video recordings
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Comprehensive Records
Narrative records Study, Classify and Organize Records Field notes are organized Playback recordings to make transcriptions Classify behavior based on the records Aggressive vs non aggressive play at school Test hypothesis about behavior Peer group membership influences individual-level bullying and fighting Do not get the cart before the horse Collect narrative records and then look for an interesting hypothesis
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Recording Behavior Narrative records
Narrative records should be made during or soon after behavior is observed. Observers must be carefully trained Avoid making inferences in the description or transcript Classify and code in an objective manner Advantage: Can review the record often to observe behavior. Disadvantage: Costly, time-consuming. Perspective can bias the record Viewpoint of researcher Can only pay attention to and record a limited set of information Even electronic recordings are limited in perspective
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Eibl-Eibesfeldt filming in the field in Papua New Guinea.
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He attached an optical prism to the camera’s lens so that he could photograph people who were at right angles to the direction in which he pointed it
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Recording Behavior Selected Records of Behaviors
Researchers choose the behavior or events they want to observe and ignore others. Researchers need to decide how they will measure the behavior. Examples: frequency of behavior, duration Related to operational definition of dependent variable Usually produces Quantitative data Recording techniques include Checklists rating scales electronic recording devices For example inattentional blindness study Record behavior of individuals when clown is riding the bike
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Recording Behavior Selected Records of Behaviors for study on the reactions to individuals with a physical disability How: What behavior(s) will be measured Based on operational definition Physically disabled Reaction Type of measurement Where: location or setting When: time of day more specifically scheduled or random
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Recording Behavior Selected Records of Behaviors for Pace of Life
How: What behavior(s) will be measured Operational definition? Type of measurement? Where: location or setting ? When: time of day more specifically scheduled or random?
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Measurement Scales Determine how data will be analyzed Nominal:
Categorize behaviors, events checklist -- see Observational Tools for examples Ordinal: Rank-order Interval: Specify distance on a dimension Rating scales are treated as interval scales Ratio: Specify distance plus meaningful zero Give an example of each for Pace of Life study Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio 32
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Measurement Scales Interval: Specify distance on a dimension
Rating scales are treated as interval scales Rating scales may not have equal intervals The Number of Points consider using anywhere from 5- to 11-point scales Order Effects in Rating Scales bias towards the left side of the scale Category Labels: Terrible awful good great Training observers Practice ratings to get equal intervals 33
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