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Non-experimental techniques

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By the end of this section students will be able to:

Identify types of observation and explain the difference between structured and unstructured observations

Describe an observation schedule and how it is used

Describe sampling techniques used in observations

Explain what a case study is

Understand what a ‘self-report technique’ is

Understand some of the problems that can arise when writing questions for interviews and questionnaires

Describe qualitative and quantitative data

Understand how to carry out a content analysis

Icons key: For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

Teacher’s notes (in Notes Page)

Extension activity Sound Video

Accompanying worksheetFlash activity (not editable)

Web links

Learning objectives

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Observations

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Observations

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Designing observations

The researcher has to decide whether they will disclose to the participants that they are being observed:

Undisclosed observations can be unethical as participants will be unable to give informed consent.

If participants are unaware they are being observed, their behaviour is likely to be more natural.

The researcher also has to decide how to collect their data:

In a structured observation the researcher decides in advance exactly which behaviours they will record.

In an unstructured observation the researcher makes no decisions beforehand about which behaviours will be recorded.

+ Strengths - Weaknesses

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Structured observations

Once the behaviours have been identified, an observation schedule can be created. During the observation, it acts as a tally chart recording the number of times a behaviour is seen.

It is important to check that observers are all interpreting the behaviour categories in the same way.

In structured observations the behaviours that are to be recorded must be operationalized. This means defining them precisely so that the observers know what they are looking for.

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Case studies

They are useful as they can allow researchers to investigate unique cases in a lot of detail.

The problem with case studies is that, as only a limited number of people are investigated, it is difficult to generalize the results to the population as a whole.

A famous case study is that of HM.

Case studies are studies of one person, or just a few people.

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HM was left with extensive brain damage after undergoing surgery for severe epilepsy in the 1950s.

Studying HM’s case therefore provided researchers with useful information about different types of memory and how these are affected by damage to particular brain regions.

He could carry out a normal conversation, and recall events and people from the time before his surgery, but was not able to remember anything that happened to him following the operation. Remarkably, he could still learn new motor skills, such as mirror drawing, despite the fact he could not remember doing so.

Case study: patient HM

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esSampling methods

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Self-report techniques

A questionnaire is a list of pre-written questions.

Open questions allow people to write about what they want in their own words.

Closed questions provide people with a number of answers which they must choose from.Interviews are normally conducted face-to-face.

In structured interviews each participant is asked the same set of questions. The questions can be open or closed.

Unstructured interviews have no set questions. The interviewer might introduce a topic, then the

participant is free to talk about whatever they wish.

Self-report techniques allow the participant to directly provide information about themselves. Two commonly used self-report techniques are interviews and questionnaires.

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Writing questions: what to avoid

Double-barrelled questions ask two questions in one, e.g. ‘Do you think crime is due to bad housing and poor education?’. The participant might want to give different answers to the two questions.

Leading questions encourage people to give a particular answer, e.g. ‘Many people think abortion is wrong: do you agree?’. This can lead to a bias in responses.

Complex questions use phrases or technical jargon which people may not understand.

Ambiguous questions can be interpreted differently by different people, e.g. ‘Do you drink coffee often?’. A better question would be ‘How many cups of coffee do you drink every day?’.

When writing questionnaires, some types of question should be avoided in order to receive clear answers.

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What is wrong with these questions?

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Quantitative data is data that generates numbers.

Qualitative data is data that is non-numerical. Qualitative research often focuses on how people are thinking or feeling.

Closed questions in questionnaires and interviews can provide quantitative data.

Open questions in questionnaires and structured interviews can be used to collect qualitative data. Unstructured interviews are also used to collect qualitative data.

Qualitative and quantitative data

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Content analysis

Qualitative data is non-numerical so it cannot be directly analysed by statistical methods. Content analysis can be used to convert qualitative data into quantitative data.

Content analysis is a form of indirect observation. It is a way to analyse the content of artefacts produced by people, for example, responses from interviews or questionnaires.

Choose the information to be analysed (for example, open questions on questionnaires, unstructured observations).

Steps in content analysis:

Decide on coding units to use when analysing the data. The coding units must reflect the aim of the research.Analyse the data by counting how often each of the coding units occurs in the material.The data generated by the content analysis is in a numerical form and can be analysed using statistics.