⊿ Point. {R} Glossary. ◢ Keyword: O. ◥ University. {q} PhD. {tr} Training. ⚫ UK. ⚫ England. ⬤ London. ↂ EndNote. ✊ La (2004) ☝️ [BS] Heigham. Observational methods in psychology. Observational methods in psychological research entail the observation and description of a subject's behavior. Researchers utilizing the observational method can exert varying amounts of control over the environment in which the observation takes place. This makes observational research a sort of middle ground between the highly controlled method of experimental design and the less structured approach of conducting interviews. Sampling behavior[edit] Time sampling[edit] Time sampling is a sampling method that involves the acquisition of representative samples by observing subjects at different time intervals. An advantage to using time sampling is that researchers gain the ability to control the contexts to which they will eventually be able to generalize.
Situation sampling[edit] For a good example of situation sampling, see this study by LaFrance and Mayo concerning the differences in the use of gaze direction as a regulatory mechanism in conversation. Direct observational methods[edit] Observer's paradox. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Situation in which a phenomenon being observed is influenced by the presence of the observer In the social sciences (and physics and experimental physics), the observer's paradox is a situation in which the phenomenon being observed is unwittingly influenced by the presence of the observer/investigator.
In the field of sociolinguistics, the term Observer’s Paradox was coined by William Labov, who stated with regard to the term: The aim of linguistic research in the community must be to find out how people talk when they are not being systematically observed; yet we can only obtain this data by systematic observation.[1] This variant of the phenomenon is named for the Hawthorne Works, a factory built by Western Electric, where efficiency engineers in the 1920s and 1930s were trying to determine if improved working conditions such as better lighting improved the performance of production workers.
J.K. Taylor & Francis Group - Making the Familiar Strange | Sociology Contra Reification | Ryan Gund. This book examines the meaning and implications of the sociological maxim, ‘make the familiar strange’. Addressing the methodological questions of why and how sociologists should make the familiar strange, what it means to ‘make the familiar strange’, and how this approach benefits sociological research and theory, it draws on four central concepts: reification, familiarity, strangeness, and defamiliarization.
Through a typology of the notoriously ambiguous concept of reification, the author argues that the primary barrier to sociological knowledge is our experience of the social world as fixed and unchangeable. Thus emerges the importance of constituting the familiar as the strange through a process of social defamiliarization as well as making this process more methodical by reflecting on heuristics and patterns of thinking that render society strange. Business Consultants - Making the Strange Familiar and the Familiar Strange. Although the expression “Making the strange familiar and the familiar strange,” is not one we often hear, it is relevant to situations affecting human creativity, where the objective is to motivate people to a different approach interpreting things or solving problems. Attributed to the German poet Novalis (1772-1801), the expression is typical of the Romantic era, when artists sought mysterious qualities in well-known objects, while also seeking to identify recognizable, commonplace characteristics in the weird and extraordinary.
In doing so, Romantics began a trend among the Western creative community that lasted thru the 19th century well into the 20th (the Surrealists). And there is a lot of truth to the idea that expanding one’s point-of-view by comparing things is important for creativity. Because if your teapot has not yet talked to you (or at least winked), you may be very ready to seek unique features in what you might ordinarily consider average, unexciting, mundane. Observation. Active acquisition of information from a primary source Science[edit] The scientific method requires observations of natural phenomena to formulate and test hypotheses.[3] It consists of the following steps:[4][5] Human senses are limited and subject to errors in perception, such as optical illusions. Scientific instruments were developed to aid human abilities of observation, such as weighing scales, clocks, telescopes, microscopes, thermometers, cameras, and tape recorders, and also translate into perceptible form events that are unobservable by the senses, such as indicator dyes, voltmeters, spectrometers, infrared cameras, oscilloscopes, interferometers, Geiger counters, and radio receivers.
Considered as a physical process itself, all forms of observation (human or instrumental) involve amplification and are thus thermodynamically irreversible processes, increasing entropy. Paradoxes[edit] Biases[edit] Confirmation bias[edit] Processing bias[edit] Philosophy[edit] See also[edit] Observational error. Difference between a measured value of a quantity and its true value Observational error (or measurement error) is the difference between a measured value of a quantity and its unknown true value.[1] Such errors are inherent in the measurement process; for example lengths measured with a ruler calibrated in whole centimeters will have a measurement error of several millimeters.
The error or uncertainty of a measurement can be estimated, and is specified with the measurement as, for example, 32.3 ± 0.5 cm. Scientific observations are marred by two distinct types of errors, systematic errors on the one hand, and random, on the other hand. The effects of random errors can be mitigated by the repeated measurements. Constant or systematic errors on the contrary must be carefully avoided, because they arise from one or more causes which constantly act in the same way, and have the effect of always altering the result of the experiment in the same direction.
Science and experiments [edit]