Creswell has explained that observation in qualitative research is when researchers write field notes about frequent phenomenons whether it is structured (with prior questions) or unstructured (without prior questions) in the research field. A few months ago, I joined a course of quantitative method in a school in the Netherlands, it says that research (qualitative and quantitative) should be objective that means anybody should be able to get the same results based on the description of the assumptions and procedures, all measurements, and these elements should be clearly and explicitly defined prior, leaving no room for subjective interpretation. What about unstructured observation when we have no pre-defined concepts? How do we make sure other researchers won't make a different interpretation?
Dear Pratiwi,
Quantitative research methods are strict and neatly partitioned. Relevantly, just an observation is not enough to conclude about anything. That is why there are so many modelings, numeric, and statistical analysis techniques. When anybody says the methods have to be objective or super-objective, they mainly mean to make you meet the general and widely-accepted standards of doing the science. In qualitative research, which I rarely use, also everything begins with the observations, but without the background theory and scientific argumentations, you may provide unreliable results. Qualitative research is similar to quantitative in terms of demands for methodology description. You should just find the main and fundamental standards to minimize subjective interpretations. In my opinion, almost every single research can be interpreted subjectively. For example, I do not like so many econometrical methodologies. There are some when I read them I do not understand and I might subjectively interpret the results and conclusions differently.
As Ibrahim Niftiyev indicates, you are encountering the fundamental differences between qualitative and quantitative research. In particular, the kind of objectivity that goes with quantitative research is frequently associated with testing hypotheses, which requires careful definition of pre-specified variables. that is very different from the kinds of exploratory goals that often guide qualitative research, where you are seeking to learn what matters with only a minimum of preconceptions about your topic.
If the original source you used was Creswell's book on Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, then I suggest you go back and review the section on qualitative research. Or, it that was not the textbook that you used, then reading it will help you understand the differences between qualitative and quantitative research.
When I have to do behavioral observations in the classroom, I have to describe what I see in an objective manner. There should be no interpretation of the behavior. For example, I should NOT describe it this way: The student was fooling around with his eraser on the desk. That does not tell what was happening. Instead, I could say, the student danced his Spongebob eraser from the left side of his desk to the right. He poked the student beside him, and then pointed to the eraser and laughed quietly. This shows what happened, and the reader can understand the situation. You could even record the amount of time the eraser danced (quantitative) or how long the student was off-task (not doing math problems).
You must make sure that your measures are truly measuring what you want to study. Define those measures well. A qualitative look at our student with the eraser might look at the kinds of off-task behaviors he engages in. Solo activities vs interaction. Out of seat or in seat. What types of tasks he is avoiding.
This sounds like a psychological question.
If you want objectivity, see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_H37Hy6npmER-5cbfFwiMJm1Kcjr87jR/view?ths=true
Rhonda D. Miller Thank you very much! As a newbie in behavioral observation, for me, your explanation helps much. I tried to define the measures from previous studies, for example, I want to observe performances during work from home, previous studies suggest employees finish more tasks and join more courses for competency development during work from home because of fewer distractions, that corroborates with my finding in the first two months of observation, but after two months, in the longer term, fewer tasks are done, employees start to lay down after every zoom meeting (I never knew before that there is this term of 'zoom fatigue'), they call families and office mates to talk about things that are not related to works more frequently than the first two months, they start to exercise more, then performance starts to increase little by little. For me, one of the qualitative looks is social interaction gets employees back on the track, but, so far I found no studies that explore that during work from home arrangement. Can I define the measure in that unstructured way? Could you suggest me comprehensive literature on behavioral observation?
The goal of quantitative methods is to be generalizable and describe something. Qualitative methods do not produce results that are generalizable, but rather results that describe and explain the experiences. Qualitative analysis, therefore, requires more intuition and reflection on the part of the researchers.
There are ways in qualitative methods to analyze with more objectivity, such as using multiple people to analyze the results and comparing the coding or outcomes. In my doctoral dissertation, I had to code hundreds of items, which I did myself, but I selected a random sample and asked colleagues to code them, and calculated the level of concurrence with my own efforts, so establish validity.
Pratiwi Pratiwi : I am not an expert in behavioral research. I study special education (learning disabilities in particular), but there are some good journals that you might want to use to look at studies where behavior is recorded. Behavior Disorders is a good one. Also Beyond Behavior.
Both in qualitative and quantitative research observation is necessary but not sufficient. One of the key aspects in research is the validation criteria. In quantitative research you need to demonstrate that your study is valid and reliable and in qualitative research a very important criteria to ensure trustfulness is triangulation. Yes, you can do research based on observation only, but it is much better if you use another research method, such as interviews, for example. In addition, it is important to add that in social research it is very difficult to reach objectivity. Most of the social phenomena are subjective. Precisely, one of the differences between qualitative and quantitative research is that the first one is subjective and the second one is objective. You can check this information in Cresswell´s and other authors textbooks.
It sounds like you may want to do "systematic observation" where you make records what your participants do and do not do. Here is a website with some information on this method.
Article Editorial: Systematic Observation: Engaging Researchers in t...
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