Contents

CHAPTER 4: Observation 135CHALLENGE QUESTIONS1 Students in a developmental psychology lab courseconducted an observational study of parent–infantinteractions in the home. When they first enteredthe home on each of the 4 days they observed agiven family, they greeted both the parents andthe infant (and any other children at home). Theyinstructed the family to follow its daily routine,and they asked a series of questions about theactivities of that day to determine whether it wasa “normal” day or whether anything unusual hadhappened. The students tried to make the familyfeel comfortable, but they also tried to minimizetheir interactions with the family and with eachother. For any given 2-hour observation periodthere were always two student observers presentin the home, and the two observers recorded theirnotes independently of each other. Each of six pairsof students was randomly assigned to observe twoof the 12 families who volunteered to serve in thestudy. The same pair of observers always observeda given family for the entire 8 hours of observationfor that family. The observers used rating scalesto record behaviors on a number of differentdimensions, such as mutual warmth and affectionof the parent–infant interaction.A Cite two specific procedures used by thestudents to ensure the reliability of theirfindings.B Cite one possible threat to the external validityof the findings of this study; once again,cite a specific example from the descriptionprovided.C Cite one specific aspect of their procedure thatindicated that the students were sensitive to thepossibility that their measurements might bereactive. What other methods might they haveused to deal with this problem of reactivity?2 An observational study was done to assess theeffects of environmental influences on drinkingby college students in a university-sponsoredpub. Eighty-two students over the age of 21 wereobserved. The observers used a checklist to recordwhether the participant was male or female andwhether the participant was with one other personor was in a group of two or more other people.Each observation session was always from 3 P.M.to 1 A.M., and observations were made Mondaythrough Saturday. The observations were madeover a 3-month period. Two observers were alwayspresent during any observation session. Eachparticipant was observed for up to 1 hour fromthe time he or she ordered the first beer. The datawere summarized in terms of the number of beersdrunk per hour. The results showed that men drankmore and men drank faster than did women. Mendrank faster when with other men, and womenalso drank faster with men present. Both menand women drank more in groups than when withone other person. These results indicate that theenvironment within which drinking occurs playsan important role in the nature and extent of thatdrinking.A Identify the observational method being used inthis study, and explain why you decided on theobservational method you chose.B Identify the independent and dependentvariables in this study, and describe theoperational definition of each level of theindependent variable.C How could the researchers control for reactivityin this study? What ethical concerns might arisefrom their approach?D Identify one aspect of the procedures in thisstudy that would likely increase the reliability ofthe observations.E Identify one aspect of the procedures in thisstudy that would likely limit the external validityof the findings of this study.3 A bright female graduate student in psychologyhas been offered a job with both Newsweek andTime. The salary offers of the two companies arebasically the same, and it appears that both theworking conditions and the job responsibilities aresimilar. To help her decide which job to accept, sheresolves to determine whether one magazine has abetter attitude toward women than the other. Sheappeals to you to help her with a content analysisof these two news magazines. What specific advicewould you give her regarding each of the followingsteps of her content analysis?A SamplingB CodingC ReliabilityD Quantitative and qualitative measures4 Four students were doing internships at the SocialScience Research Institute of their university. Theresearch institute had a contract to do a seriesof studies on traffic safety for the downtowndevelopment agency of a small city near theuniversity. The internship students were assignedto carry out one of the studies. Specifically, they(continued)