One Of The Main Advantages Of Observational Data Collection Is?

Observation Method of Data Collection Observation is a technique that involves systematically selecting, watching, listening, reading, touching, and recording behavior and characteristics of living beings, objects, or phenomena.

The researchers, adopting this method, attempt to understand behavior and societies by getting to know the persons involved and their values, rituals, symbols, behavior, and emotions.

The technique qualifies as a scientific method of data collection when it is specially designed to respond a research question and is systematically planned and executed with proper controls.

The versatility of the method makes it an indispensable master source of data and a supplement to other methods.

Advantages of the Observation Method

Directness

The chief reward of observation is its directness. Nosotros can collect data at the fourth dimension they occur. The observer does non have to ask people about their behavior and reports from others.

He or she can simply watch as individuals act and speak. While the survey respondents may take a hazy or lapse retentivity about events that occurred in the distant past, the observer is studying events as they occur.

Natural environment

Whereas other data collection techniques introduce artificiality into the research surround, data nerveless in an observation study describe the observed phenomena as they occur in their natural settings.

Ascertainment is neither as restrictive nor every bit bogus equally either the survey or the experiment.

Longitudinal assay

Since the ascertainment is possible to exist conducted in a natural setting, the observer can behave his or her study over a much longer period than with either the survey or experiment.

Non-exact behavior

Ascertainment is decidedly superior to survey research, experimentation, or certificate study for collecting data on nonverbal behavior. Some studies focus on individuals who are unable to give verbal reports or to clear themselves meaningfully.

For these subjects, the observational method is indispensable. These include children, bedridden, and mentally and physically handicraft people.

Disadvantages of the Ascertainment Method

Lack of control

Despite the advantage as achieved from the natural environment, the observation study, all the same, has little control over extraneous variables that may affect the information.

The presence of a stranger (the observer) and the fault involved in human observation and the recording of data, which may remain out of control of the observer, are probable to bias the observations to a smashing extent.

Difficulties in quantification

Measurement in observational studies by and large takes the form of observer's un-quantified perceptions rather than the quantitative measures often used in the survey and experimental studies.

Smallness in sample size

Because observational studies are generally conducted in-depth, with data that are oft subjective and difficult to quantify, the sample size is usually kept at a minimum.

Also, the in-depth nature of the observation studies generally requires that they are conducted over an extended period, and so the survey method or experiments. This characteristic tends to limit the size of the sample.

No opportunity to learn past

In an observational study, at that place is no way to know the by. It is also difficult to gather data on such topics as intentions, opinions, attitudes, or preferences.

This technique can generate either quantitative or qualitative information but tends to exist used more for pocket-size-scale exploratory studies than for large-scale quantitative studies. This is because it unremarkably requires

Relatively highly skilled observers and analysts
Prolonged periods of ascertainment
High cost per unit of measurement of observation.

Techniques of Observation

This technique lends itself specially well to the observation of community responses to plan efforts.

It is the master method of ethnographers, who specialize in community studies. It is as well useful for organizational studies such every bit ascertainment of dispensary operations, activities of field-workers, and administrative procedures.

An observational report is usually initiated from three dissimilar perspectives every bit outlined below:

Whether the observation is direct or indirect,
Whether the observer'southward presence is known or unknown, and
' What part the observer plays during the observation.

When an ascertainment study is conducted with the first ii approaches, nosotros phone call it a non-participant observation study.

The third arroyo leads to a report which nosotros refer to as participant observation study.

Participant observation: The observer takes part in the situation he or she observes.
Non-participant observation: The observer watches the situation openly, but does non

Direct observation

Straight ascertainment refers to the situation when the observer remains physically present and personally monitors what takes place.

This approach is very flexible because it allows the observer to react to and report subtle aspects of events as they occur.

During the human action of observation, the observer is free to change the focus of ascertainment, concentrate on unexpected events, or even modify the place of observation if the state of affairs demands.

Indirect observation

Indirect ascertainment occurs when the recording is done by mechanical, photographic, videotape, cameras, or other electronic means.

For instance, a special camera may be set in a department store to study customers' or employees' movements.

A camera may besides be mounted in a rider train or plane to determine passenger's comfort past observing how passengers sit and move in their seats. Such observation can besides exist conducted in planning traffic control and redesigning of peripheral streets.

The second arroyo of ascertainment concerns whether the presence of the observer is known (overt) or unknown (covert) to the subjects. In an overt study, the observer remains visible to the observer, and the subjects are aware that they are being observed.

In a covert study, on the other paw, subjects are unaware that they are existence observed.

The major problem with the overt study is that information technology may be reactive. That is, it may make the subjects ill at ease and cause them to act differently than they would if they were not being observed.

The covert study uses a darkening arroyo where the observers shield themselves from the object of their observations.

Ofttimes technical means are used, such equally one-fashion mirrors, subconscious cameras, or microphones.

This method reduces the risk of observer bias but brings up a question of ethical issues in the sense that subconscious ascertainment is a form of spying.

The third arroyo of data collection in natural settings is through participant observation, which refers to an observation in which an observer gains firsthand noesis by beingness in and around the social setting that is being investigated.

With this method, the observer joins in the daily life of the group or arrangement he is studying.

He watches what happens to the members of the community and how they behave, and he also engages in conversations with them to find out their reactions to and interpretations of the events that have occurred.

Prolonged and personal interaction with the subjects of the research is the prime advantage of participant observation.

Extended contact with the subjects helps them feel comfy in the participant observer'southward presence. The observer's task is to place himself in the best position for getting a complete and unbiased picture of the life of the customs, which he is observing.

To ensure this, the observer needs to learn the linguistic communication, habits, work patterns, leisure activities, and other aspects of their daily life. In participatory enquiry, the researcher assumes either a complete participant role or a participant-as- observer role.

In a consummate participant role, the observer is wholly curtained; the research activities are unknown to the subjects, and the researcher attempts to become a member of the group under ascertainment.

The complete participant interacts with the subjects as naturally every bit possible.

Consummate participation has been justified because it makes possible the study of inaccessible groups or groups that practice non reveal to outsiders sure aspects of their lives.

Presumably, the observer is treated as only another member of the grouping being observed.

Despite this advantage, some researchers accept severely criticized the complete participant arroyo on methodological and upstanding ground. They maintain that such approaches plant an invasion of privacy and may impairment the subjects.

Given the above limitations, contemporary researchers most often abet for participant-as-observer role. When researchers prefer this type of role, they inform the grouping beingness studied that there is a research agenda.

Researchers brand long-term commitments to becoming agile members of the grouping and endeavour to found close relationships with its members who subsequently serve equally both informants and respondents.

With this method, the observer gains a deeper appreciation of the group and its fashion of life and may also gain different levels of insight past actually participating rather than only observing.

Types of Ascertainment

In contrast, to survey research, in which the questions are standardized and constructed in advance to yield quantitative data, observational studies are much less structured and, at the aforementioned timeless systematic.

Even so, an observational report should be so designed that information technology at least reflects the scientific procedures of other principal data collection procedures.

Bailey (1987) classifies observational studies by the degree of structure in the environmental setting and the corporeality of structure imposed on the environment by the researchers.

Following the writer, there are ii types of structure. The offset is the degree of structure of the environs, which can exist dichotomized as a natural setting or as an artificial or laboratory setting.

The other is the degree of construction imposed upon the observational environs by the researcher, which can once again be dichotomized as structured (such as counting of the frequency with which certain behaviors occur) and unstructured, in which the researcher does not look for any particular behaviors just but observes and records any occurs.

The resulting typology can be displayed in tabular grade equally follows:

Study blazon	Surround
Type 1: Completely unstructured	Natural setting
Blazon 2: Unstructured	Laboratory
Type iii: Structured	Natural setting
Type 4: Completely structured	Laboratory

In blazon i study, conducted in a natural setting, the researcher, every bit a participant-observer, becomes a office of the culture and describes in great item everything surrounding the event or activity of interest.

In type 2, the researcher uses the laboratory facilities, such as videotape, two-way mirrors, etc.

In contrast, the type iii written report takes the advantages of a structured observational instrument in a natural setting and generally tends to be a non-participant study.

The type-4 study, being a completely structured study, requires a measuring instrument, chosen an observational checklist, analogous to a questionnaire, which should possess a high degree of precision in defining relevant behavior or acts and accept mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories.

The coding is frequently closed. This report tends to be a no-participant observation study.

The major steps in an observational written report as enumerated by Bailey (1987: 247) are:

Decide upon the goals of the study;
Make up one's mind upon the group for subjects to be observed;
Gain entry to the group;
Gain rapport with the subjects being studied;
Comport the study by observing and recording field notes over weeks, months or even years;
Deal with crises that occur, such every bit confrontations with subjects who think you are some sort of spy;
Get out from the observational stud;
Analyze the information;
Write a written report presenting the findings.