Observational Techniques

What is Observational Techniques?
•Observational Techniques (or field research) is a social research technique that involves the direct observation of phenomena in their natural setting.
•Observational Techniques, a form of naturalistic inquiry, allow investigation of phenomena in their naturally occurring settings.
Participant observation is where the researcher joins the population or its organisation or community setting to record behaviours, interactions or events that occur. He or she engages in the activities that s/he is studying, but the first priority is the observation. Participation is a way to get close to the action and to get a feel for what things mean to the actors. As a participant, the evaluator is in a position to gain additional insights through experiencing the phenomena for themselves. Participant observation can be used as a long or short term technique. The evaluator/researcher has to stay long enough however to immerse him /herself in the local environment and culture and to earn acceptance and trust from the regular actors.
Observation consists of observing behaviour and interactions as they occur, but seen through the eyes of the researcher. There is no attempt to participate as a member of the group or setting, although usually the evaluator has to negotiate access to the setting and the terms of research activity. The intention is to ‘melt into the background’ so that an outsider presence has no direct effect on the phenomena under study. He or she tries to observe and understand the situation ‘from the inside’.
Observational techniques share similarities with the ethnographic approach that anthropologists use in studying a culture although typically they spend a long time in the field. Aspects of the ethnographic approach are sometimes incorporated into observational methods, as for example where interest is not just in behaviours and interactions but also in features and artefacts of the physical, social and cultural setting. These are taken to embed the norms, values, procedures and rituals of the organisation and reflect the ‘taken for granted’ background of the setting which influences behaviours understandings, beliefs and attitudes of the different actors.
Another form of naturalistic inquiry that complements observational methods is conversation and discourse analysis. This qualitative method studies naturally occurring talk and conversation in institutional and non-institutional settings, and offers insights into systems of social meaning and the methods used for producing orderly social interaction. It can be a useful technique for evaluating the conversational interaction between public service agents and clients in service delivery settings.

Main Steps in Observational Techniques
Observational methods generally involve the following steps.
Step 1. Choice of situations for observation: The settings for observation are defined in advance in relation to the interests of the evaluation commissioners and other key stakeholders. They consist of settings of interaction or of negotiation between public actors and the beneficiaries of the evaluated policy. The researcher negotiates access to the sites of observation with the relevant parties (informally, in the case of participant observation).

Step 2. Observation: The observer observes the course of interaction, taking care to disturb the behaviour of the actors as little as possible. This work consists of note-taking and audio-visual recordings (as discretely as possible). The observer can take notes away from research subjects or immediately after the visit.

This step cannot be limited to simple observation but must be complemented by organisational or institutional analysis so as to identify the ways in which social, cultural and physical features of the setting impinge on relations between the actors. The observer must record as much information as possible and capture an insider view of the setting.

Step 3. Analysing the material: One approach to processing the material gathered is to analyse the events observed in terms of characteristic sequences. Each recording is ‘cut up’ just as one would edit a film into sequences.
The observer identifies the ‘evaluative assertions’, that is to say, the sentences which convey an explicit or implicit value judgement. Typical sequences and their analysis are concentrated on these assertions, and reveal the way in which the policy is judged in the field. Used in this way, the tool can shed important new light on the validity and effectiveness of the policy.

Step 4. Analysis of typical sequences with the actors. The typical sequences and assertions are rewritten or modified to make them anonymous. They are then given to representatives of the people observed, for the purpose of collecting their comments and reactions. This step serves to verify that no bias has been created by taking the sequences out of their context. It gives, for each sequence, keys for interpretation which are recognised and validated by the ‘community’ under study.
Comments about the above section – only one method is described, analysis of sequences (or conversations?). More common, general observation technique is to write notes and code them afterwards, an ethnographic method and with this it is not usually returned to subjects to verify.

Types of Observation Technique
The most frequently used types of observational techniques are:
•Personal observation
1.Observing products in use to detect usage patterns and problems
2.Observing license plates in store parking lots
3.Determining the socio-economic status of shoppers
4.Determining the level of package scrutiny
5.Determining the time it takes to make a purchase decision
•Mechanical observation
1.Eye-tracking analysis while subjects watch advertisements
(a)Oculometers - what the subject is looking at
(b)Pupilometers - how interested is the viewer
(2)Electronic checkout scanners - records purchase behavior
(3)On-site cameras in stores
(4)Nielsen box for tracking television station watching
(5)Voice pitch meters - measures emotional reactions
(6)Psychogalvanometer - measures galvanic skin response
•Audits
i)Retail audits to determine the quality of service in stores
ii)Inventory audits to determine product acceptance
iii)Shelf space audits
•Trace Analysis
i)Credit card records
ii)Computer cookie records
iii)Garbology - looking for traces of purchase patterns in garbage
iv)Detecting store traffic patterns by observing the wear in the floor (long term) or the dirt on the floor (short term)
v)Exposure to advertisements
•Content analysis
i)Observe the content of magazines, television broadcasts, radio broadcasts, or newspapers, either articles, programs, or advertisements

Strengths and Limitations of Observational Techniques
Observation is a generic method that involves the collection, interpretation and comparison of data. It shares these characteristics with the case study method. It is therefore particularly well suited to the analysis of the effects of an intervention that is innovative or unfamiliar, and especially the clarification of confounding factors that influence the apparent success or failure of the interventions evaluated.
Observational techniques serve to reveal the discrepancy between the way in which public interventions are understood high up at decision-making level, and the way in which it is understood in the field; it highlights the interpretation made of it by individuals in an operational situation.
The observation is generally limited to a small number of settings. Generalisation is therefore possible only if the intervention is sufficiently homogeneous across sites.
It is based on spontaneous or naturalistic data, gathered by an independent and experienced observer. The reliability of the observation depends to a large extent on the professional know-how of the observer-analyst. It is however possible to introduce a structured observational template that can be used by less experienced researchers, when gathering data across a large number of settings.
Despite its advantages, observation requires meticulous preparation to enable the observer to fit into the observed context without disturbing anyone [what sort of preparation?], as well as considerable time for data collection. making it an expensive method.
The technique allows data to be gathered in difficult situations where other survey techniques cannot be used.
A major strength of using observational techniques, especially those based on Grounded Theory, is that they can capture unexpected data which other methods can miss. The researcher does not define categories of data before going out into the field but is open to “what’s there” – the theory emerges from the data on the ground rather than pre-defined theory influencing what data is collected.
The extent to which the observer can be present without disturbing or influencing research subjects is never nil; it is usually recommended that observers maintain self-awareness about how they impact the environment they are researching and to take account of it in their data collection. In participant observation the researcher aims to become part of a community or environment rather than maintaining a detached status.