Skills II Practical Observing Behaviour

IPN/PSY1128

Practical manual
2023-2024 | Period 2
 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

Name & ID-number student: Roxy Nafzger I6351745

Introduction and Assignment

In order to complete the assignment, download this manual and answer the questions in this
document. Please save this document regularly. After completion, upload the document on
Canvas PSY/IPN 1128 (see instructions on page 12). This symbol: 󠄇󠇯 indicates that you need to
answer a question. The document needs to contain answers to all the questions when you
upload it.

Attendance
Your attendance will be registered if a completed document is uploaded between November
22 and December 8 2022 (23.59h).
If you have missed attendance, you can apply for a catch-up assignment by emailing the
coordinator. Once the catch-up assignment is approved, your attendance will be registered.

Assessment
The practical will be assessed with ‘pass’ 󠄇󠇯or 󠄇󠇯‘fail’. 󠄇󠇯

Fleurie Nievelstein Fleurie.Nievelstein@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Coordinator

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

WHAT WILL YOU DO?

Goal
During this practical you are going to observe in a systematic manner. As soon as you finished
this practical you will know what systematic observation of behaviour contains, what you are
able to do with it -and what is not possible- as well as how you should observe behaviour
systematically in a research setting. The 4 steps of Systematic Observation (J.P. van de Sande,
2007) were discussed during the lecture of observational research. We are not going through
all of the steps of this protocol in this practical since that would take too long. During the
observation field study of Skills II, you will go through all of the 4 steps of systematic
observation.

Background
Behavioural observation means looking at behaviour with the goal to fathom and understand
the shown behaviour. Observation forms an important and essential method of knowledge
obtainment and research method in general for psychologists. Behavioural observation is
convenient, for example, for research on animal behaviour because obviously animals cannot
tell us the reasons for their own behaviour. Furthermore, developmental psychologists who
study normal and abnormal development in children frequently use systematic observation.
After all, babies cannot talk and children are not always capable of verbalizing and explaining
their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. After defining the observed behaviour, the next step
is to determine and quantify the behaviour categories. How often (and how long) does a
certain behavioural element occur?

It is crucial to consider two limitations during observation. First, perception of behaviour is

always subjective. This means that the perception of the behaviour is always combined with
interpretation of the behaviour by the observer. Trouble with this is that one person can
evaluate and perceive a certain behaviour completely different than someone else. To
diminish or even eliminate subjectivity from your observation, as a researcher you need to
define the behaviour in which you are interested clearly in advance – this is important so that
the explanation of the observed behaviour (or elements of this behaviour) is as
straightforward as possible. However, this also implies the second limitation during
observation: selectiveness. Selectivity means simplification. This may be a limitation because
overly simplifying things sometimes does not justify the richness of human behaviour.
Nevertheless, systematic observation is the most reliable way of observation because it
increases the objectivity of observations which enables us to draw more certain conclusions
about the observed behaviours – and to increase the likelihood that another observer
observes the same thing.

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

EXERCISES

You will now practice systematic observation through some exercises. You can use the
handouts of the lecture (by Fleurie Nievelstein, November 21) to help you answer the
questions. The handouts are available under 󠄇󠇯‘Resources’ 󠄇󠇯+ in an announcement on Canvas.

Developmental psychologist Johnny has two children: a son and a daughter. He has the idea
that girls at preschool age can better focus their attention during the completion of a task -
selective attention- than boys of the same age. But is this true? You will investigate this. You
are about to watch a short video where you can see two preschoolers assigned to solve a
puzzle. Open the video in Google Chrome that can be found under 󠄇󠇯‘resources’ 󠄇󠇯on Canvas.

In the video, a boy and a girl about four years old engage in solving the puzzle. Your
assignment is to determine, on the basis of this video, whether indeed girls are better at
keeping their attention on a given task, than boys. In 󠄇󠇯actual 󠄇󠇯research 󠄇󠇯you 󠄇󠇯obviously 󠄇󠇯wouldn’t 󠄇󠇯
judge this purely on the basis of one such video, but you would watch and score many video’s 󠄇󠇯
(or in real life), with many different children.

Exercise 1: The definition of behaviour

When observing behaviour you make use of behavioural codes. These are abbreviations for
behaviour (elements), which make it easier and more efficient to observe behaviour.
Below you can see a chart with behavioural codes. You will work with these codes during your
observations while watching the video:

Name Description Code

Grabbing Child takes piece from the box GR
Taking away Child takes piece away from someone else TA
Accepting Child accepts piece from the other child AC
Giving Child gives piece to someone else GI
Snatching Piece is snatched away by the other child SN
Search about Searching in the box for a piece SA
Puzzle Child inserts a piece or takes a piece away from the puzzle PZ
Looking Child watches passively LO
Other Child does something completely different (not related to the OT
puzzle)

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

Question 1a: What is the underlying construct (step 1c, see lecture slide 33) measured in this
study?
The construct measured in this study is: focus and attention

Ethogram
An ethogram displays an hierarchical description of the behaviour that should be observed
(see step 2b, slides 33-44-45lecture).

Question 1b: Why do we use an ethogram during observation?

Ethograms give researchers a set of clear definitions and divisions for behavior, to make sure
all observers are consistently collecting the same data. This gives them more reliability as
researchers. The Ethogram also provides our behaviour structurally and systematically, so
that we can categorize exactly which behaviour is typical/attentive and which behavior is
abnormal/inattentive (in this case). This is helpful to make a clear conclusion about your
hypothesis.

Below you can find the ethogram prepared for this study. Complete the ethogram by filling in
the different behavioural elements mentioned in the table above in the empty rows (choose
from: Grabbing, Taking away, Accepting, Giving, Snatching, Search about, Puzzle, Looking,
Other).
While doing this, keep the image of two kids trying to solve a puzzle in your mind and
consider: Which of these behavioural 󠄇󠇯elements 󠄇󠇯would 󠄇󠇯you 󠄇󠇯consider 󠄇󠇯‘attentive’ 󠄇󠇯and 󠄇󠇯which 󠄇󠇯
would 󠄇󠇯you 󠄇󠇯consider 󠄇󠇯as 󠄇󠇯‘inattentive’? 󠄇󠇯For 󠄇󠇯some 󠄇󠇯behavioural elements it will be easier to make
a choice than for others.

Selective attention

Attentive Inattentive
↓ ↓

GR LO
PZ OT
TA SN
AC SA
GI

Question 1c: Which of the behaviour elements described above in the ethogram do you think
will occur sooner and predominantly in boys (following Johnny the developmental
psychologist’s 󠄇󠇯theorizing)? 󠄇󠇯
The theory is that girls will be more attentive to one task then boys, so: I think boys will take
part in LO, OT, SN or SA sooner.

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

Exercise 2: Observing the boy

The video that you are going to watch can be found under 󠄇󠇯‘resources’ 󠄇󠇯on 󠄇󠇯Canvas. Use Google
Chrome to open the video!

You will start observing the boy now. You will do this by looking at the 3 minutes video.
Start your observations the moment the video runs for five seconds. Stop the video after
every five seconds and score the relevant/appropriate behaviour codes to indicate which
behaviour occurred in the past five seconds. Write down your observations every five seconds
for during the whole video.

Start the video and observe what happens (e.g., “he 󠄇󠇯gives 󠄇󠇯a 󠄇󠇯piece 󠄇󠇯(5-10 sec)... he searches
(10-15 sec) ... he just looks (15-20 sec)... other (20-25 󠄇󠇯sec) 󠄇󠇯“), 󠄇󠇯and fill it in Chart 1 below. Use
the pause button in the video if needed.

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

CHART I (boy)
Behaviour Time in seconds / min
element CODE :
GI/LO 5-10
LO/OT 10-15
GR/GI/SA 15-20
GR/GI/LO/OT 20-25
LO/OT 25-30
LO 30-35
LO/OT 35-40
GI/GR 40-45
SA/OT 45-50
LO/SA 50-55
SA/GR/LO 55-60
PZ 1 min-1.05
LO/OT 1.05-1.10
LO/OT 1.10-1.15
SA 1.15-1.20
GR/LO 1.20-1.25
LO/OT 1.25-1.30
LO/OT 1.30-1.35
LO/SA 1.35-1.40
SA 1.40-1.45
SA/GR 1.45-1.50
SA/GR 1.50-1.55
GI/LO 1.55-2 min
LO 2 min - 2.05
SA 2.05-2.10
SA 2.10-2.15
GR/OT 2.15-2.20
SA 2.20-2.25
SA 2.25-2.30
GR/PZ 2.30-2.35
SA 2.35-2.40
SA 2.40-2.45
SA 2.45-2.50
SA 2.50-2.55
SA 2.55-3 min
OT 3 min -3.05
SA 3.05 – 3.12

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

Question 2a: How often did you label 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯boy’s 󠄇󠇯behaviour as attentive and how often did you
label 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯boy’s 󠄇󠇯behaviour as inattentive?

Attentive: 15 times, inattentive: 45 times

Exercise 3: Observing the boy (again!)

Do the observation of the boy a second time and fill in your answers in Chart II without copy-
pasting from Chart I. Start the video and fill in CHART II.

CHART II (boy)
Behaviour Time in seconds / min
element CODE :
GI/LO 5-10
GR 10-15
GR/GI/SA 15-20
GR/GI/LO/OT 20-25
LO/OT 25-30
OT 30-35
LO/OT 35-40
GI/GR 40-45
SA/OT 45-50
LO/SA 50-55
SA/GR/LO 55-60
PZ 1 min-1.05
LO/OT 1.05-1.10
LO/OT 1.10-1.15
SA 1.15-1.20
GR/LO 1.20-1.25
LO/OT 1.25-1.30
LO/OT 1.30-1.35
LO/SA 1.35-1.40
SA 1.40-1.45
SA 1.45-1.50
SA/GR 1.50-1.55
LO 1.55-2 min
LO 2 min - 2.05
SA 2.05-2.10
SA 2.10-2.15
GR/OT 2.15-2.20
SA 2.20-2.25
SA 2.25-2.30

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

GR/PZ 2.30-2.35
SA 2.35-2.40
SA 2.40-2.45
SA 2.45-2.50
SA 2.50-2.55
OT 2.55-3 min
OT 3 min -3.05
OT 3.05 – 3.12

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

Question 3a:
How 󠄇󠇯often 󠄇󠇯did 󠄇󠇯you 󠄇󠇯label 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯boy’s 󠄇󠇯behaviour as attentive and how often did you label the
boy’s 󠄇󠇯behaviour as inattentive?
Attentive: 15 times, inattentive: 43 times

Observing the same thing twice - why?

Why is it necessary to observe same twice? The answer is discussed in the lecture: Step 4b:
reliability. Suppose you check your weight every day at the same time on the same scale. On
day 1 it indicates that you weigh 65 kilos. Day 2: 34 kilos. Day 3: 55 kg. Day 4: 98 kg. People
are always fluctuating somewhat in weight - but these measurements are not reliable!

If someone else (or you) observes and scores the same behaviour, you can (and should)
expect to acquire the exact same scoring table as after the first observation. If this is not the
case then you must conclude that your observation is not (entirely) reliable. Remember, the
higher the agreement between observers, the higher the reliability of the observation.

Exercise 4: Inter-rater reliability

Question 4a: Compare and reflect

Put the observation schedules next to each other. To what extent do your schedules match?
And where do they differ (e.g., how many rows do differ)? Did you always agree or are there
cases where you once indicated that the boy was showing attentive behaviour while the other
time it was not attentive behaviour? Please elaborate:
Some rows differ in my schedule. They do match to some extent but I have made mistakes
in my observation which I discovered. The cause for mismatched results can be: loss of
focus on my part for example. This can conclude that my observational research is not
100% reliable and has to be fixed.

Question 4b: The measure of inter-rater agreement

Describe how inter-rater agreement (or reliability) can be measured:
In observational research, inter-rater agreement refers to the consistency or agreement
among different observers or research which are in this case 'raters'. If you achieve a high
inter-rater reliability this can contribute to your validity and reliability of your observational
data. You can measure the agreement by using Cohen's kappa for example. For Cohen's
kappa you calculate the observed agreement and the expected agreement: (agreements
observed – agreements expected) / (total – argeements expected). However, there is an
even easier method. You could also calculate the by calculating the percentage of
agreement between raters on the observed behaviors. An interrater reliability of 0.70 or
higher is said to be reliable.

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Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

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 Skills II -Practical Observing Behaviour- 2023-2024

Exercise 5: Observing the girl

You are going to observe the behaviour of the girl now. Again, observe the girl two times.
Now use the prescribed list of behavioural elements below to score:

Attentive Inattentive
Grabbing (GR) Snatching (SN)
Taking away (TA) Search about (SA)
Accepting (AC) Looking (LO)
Giving (GI) Other (OT)
Puzzle (PZ)

Below you can find two empty CHARTS for the behavioural observations

After observing and scoring the girl twice, without copy-pasting, answer the following
questions:
Question 5a:
How 󠄇󠇯often 󠄇󠇯did 󠄇󠇯you 󠄇󠇯label 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯girl’s 󠄇󠇯behaviour as attentive and 󠄇󠇯how 󠄇󠇯often 󠄇󠇯did 󠄇󠇯you 󠄇󠇯label 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯girl’s 󠄇󠇯
behaviour as inattentive?
First measure: Attentive = 30 times
Inattentive = 27 times
Second measure: Attentive = 30 times
Inattentive = 27 times

Question 5b: To what degree do the two observations 󠄇󠇯‘match’ 󠄇󠇯concerning 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯girl? 󠄇󠇯
The two observations both match better, there are some differences in some rows of how I
labeled them, but the amounts of how many times I labeled them are the same. Sometimes it
is difficult to see between the 2 children what the girl is engaging in.

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CHART I (girl): CHART II (girl):

Behaviour Time in seconds / min Behaviour Time in seconds / min
element CODE : element CODE :
PZ/TA/PZ 5-10 PZ/TA/PZ 5-10
SA/GR/PZ 10-15 SA/GR/PZ 10-15
AC/PZ 15-20 AC/PZ 15-20
AC/SA 20-25 AC/PZ/SA 20-25
SA/GR 25-30 SA/GR 25-30
PZ/SA 30-35 PZ/SA 30-35
GR/PZ 35-40 GR/PZ 35-40
PZ/AC 40-45 PZ/AC 40-45
SA/GR/PZ 45-50 SA/GR/PZ 45-50
GR/PZ 50-55 GR/PZ 50-55
LO 55-60 LO 55- 1 min
LO 1 min-05 LO 1 min-05
TA/PZ 1.05-1.10 TA/PZ 1.05-1.10
SA/GR 1.10-1.15 SA/GR/PZ 1.10-1.15
GR/PZ 1.15-1.20 PZ 1.15-1.20
PZ 1.20-1.25 SA 1.20-1.25
SA 1.25-1.30 SA 1.25-1.30
OT 1.30-1.35 SA 1.30-1.35
SA 1.35-1.40 SA 1.35-1.40
LO 1.40-1.45 LO 1.40-1.45
OT 1.45-1.50 OT 1.45-1.50
LO 1.50-1.55 LO 1.50-1.55
AC/PZ 1.55-2 min AC/PZ 1.55-2 min
SA/GR/PZ 2 min – 2.05 SA/GR/PZ 2 min- 2.05
LO 2.05-2.10 LO 2.05-2.10
LO 2.10-2.15 LO 2.10-2.15
OT 2.15-2.20 LO 2.15-2.20
LO 2.20-2.25 LO 2.20-2.25
LO/SA 2.25-2.30 LO/SA 2.25-2.30
PZ 2.30-2.35 PZ 2.30-2.35
PZ 2.35-2.40 PZ 2.35-2.40
LO 2.40-2.45 LO 2.40-2.45
LO 2.45-2.50 LO 2.45-2.50
SA 2.50-2.55 SA 2.50-2.55
SA 2.55-3 min OT 2.55-3 min
SA 3 min – 3.05 SA 3 min – 3.05
OT 3.05-3.12 OT 3.05-3.12

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Exercise 6: The conclusion

Question 6a: Now that you have finished observing the boy and the girl while they are solving
the puzzle, what is your conclusion?
The girl is more focused on the puzzle overall, since she was 30 times attentive and he only
focused on the puzzle for 15 times. The boy does not seem as determinant to solving the
puzzle as the girl does, he mostly just gives her the pieces to put in the puzzle.

Question 6b: 󠄇󠇯Does 󠄇󠇯this 󠄇󠇯conclusion 󠄇󠇯fit 󠄇󠇯in 󠄇󠇯with 󠄇󠇯Johnny 󠄇󠇯the 󠄇󠇯developmental 󠄇󠇯psychologist’s 󠄇󠇯theory 󠄇󠇯
about the differences between boys and girls in selective attention? Why/why not?
Johnny’s 󠄇󠇯theory 󠄇󠇯had 󠄇󠇯been 󠄇󠇯proved 󠄇󠇯to 󠄇󠇯be 󠄇󠇯right. 󠄇󠇯He 󠄇󠇯concluded 󠄇󠇯that: 󠄇󠇯girls 󠄇󠇯at 󠄇󠇯preschool 󠄇󠇯age 󠄇󠇯can 󠄇󠇯
better focus their attention during the completion of a task - selective attention- than boys of
the same age. However, we have only observed one boy and one girl which does need further
research to conclude it is the same for all girls and boys.

Question 6c: Did you make use of correlational and/or comparative research (see lecture
slides) during this practical? Explain your answer:
Comparative research involves comparing two or more situations to understand the
similarities and differences between them. The goal of comparative research is to gain
information about differences or similarities among the variables being studied. I made use of
comparative research, because I compared the attentiveness of a girl while doing a puzzle and
a boy around the same age doing a puzzle, to see which of the two would focus more.
Correlational research aims to look at the statistical relationship between two or more
variables without manipulating them. The goal of correlational research is to identify whether
and how changes in one variable are associated with changes in another variable. However
my goal was not to see how the attentiveness of the boy influenced the girl or the other way
around. I did not use correlational research.

Make sure that your name and ID are included on page 2. Upload the document between
November 22 and December 8 (before 23:59h) on Canvas IPN/PSY 1128 > Assignments >
‘Upload Practical Observing Behaviour’

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