The document provides an overview of observation as a research method. It discusses key aspects of observation including: - Observation allows collection of primary data by directly observing behaviors and events. - Both planned and unplanned observation are discussed as well as advantages like collecting objective data without relying on self-reports. - Techniques include direct/indirect, natural/artificial, and individual/mechanical observation. Mechanical tools like hidden cameras are also reviewed. - Ethical considerations and challenges with observation like the Hawthorne effect and potential for observer bias are outlined. Methods for recording observations are also summarized.

1. KUJTIM HAMELI
PhD.(C) November, 2019
Istanbul

2. *Kumar, R. (2011). “Research Methodology: A Step by Step Guide for Beginners”, SAGE Publications, 3rd Edition, pp. 139

3. OBSERVATION method
A way to collect primary data.
What you see with your own eyes and perceive with your own senses is not filtered by what
others might have (self-) reported to you or what the author of some document might have
seen.
To study complex behaviors (human relationships) for understanding the reasons for
different behaviors.
Through the observation method, only physical behaviors and activities can be observed.
In the observation method events are observed after being in no other influence.
The information is sought by way of investigator’s own direct observation without asking
from the respondent.

4. • Survey results are recorded at the time of the observation or after the observation.
• The intensity of the observation varies according to the purpose of the research.
• A single observation is not enough for an event.
Three conditions are needed for applying the observation method:
Observability
Frequency of repetition
Short-time events
OBSERVATION method

5. Advantages of the observation method:
i. Is independent of respondents’ willingness to respond.
ii. Since most individuals are unaware that they are being observed, it is possible
to collect more objective data.
iii. Not directing the person being observed or performing the observation with
mechanical means also provides objective data collection.
OBSERVATION method
Techniques used in the observation method:
i. Planned - Unplanned
ii. Direct - Indirect
iii. Natural - Artificial
iv. Individual - Mechanical

6. OBSERVATIONTECHNIQUES
• If the event or behavior to be observed is predetermined it is called
planned observation.
• Unplanned observation is the case if the event or behavior to which
data is to be collected, that is, the research problem is not identified.
• Planned observation is a suitable method for investigating descriptive
- predictive and cause - effect relationships.
• Unplanned observations are a suitable method for exploratory
research.

7. • Direct observation shows the observed behavior as revealed. The
biggest problem with this technique is that only behaviors can be
measured. It is impossible to measure variables such as, the reasons
that drive people into those behaviors, perceptions, beliefs,
behaviors, etc.
• Indirect observation provides data based on past behavior
recordings. In indirect observation, you do not observe the behavior
itself, but the consequences, influences of the behavior. For example,
drawing the results that the books with the oldest covers in the
library are the most used books.
OBSERVATIONTECHNIQUES

8. • Natural observation involves watching the normal form of observed events and behaviors in the
environment. For example, watching the customer purchases in a supermarket.
• Artificial observation is the observation of events and behaviors in an artificially created
environment.
• With natural observation, more accurate data is collected, but waiting for the situation to occur,
the observing cost increases over time.
• In artificial observation;
• External influences can be taken under control, but the possibility of controlling the environment
that may lead to behavioral changes may make questionable the external validity of the findings.
• Data collection time is reduced, which reduces costs and allows more objective measurements.
• The observer does not have to wait for the behavior to be observed.
• It is possible to use mechanical tools.
OBSERVATIONTECHNIQUES

9. • Observation can be done by individuals called observers or by mechanical
tools.
• Mechanical tools that can be used during observation are:
• Tools used in laboratories:
• Eye Camera
• Pupilometric Camera
• Psychogalvanometer
• Tools used in field studies:
• Hidden TV cameras
• Audiometers
OBSERVATIONTECHNIQUES

10. MECHANICAL OBSERVATION TOOLS
• Eye Camera: Especially used in advertising research. The camera placed on
the eye tracks the eye movements during the time the ad is displayed and
shows which elements of the ad are first noticed and attracted the most
attention.
• Pupillometric Camera: It is an eye-tracking device that measures very
sensitive increases and decreases in the eye-pupil. It has been recognized
that there is a relationship between the increases and decreases in the eye
pupil and the degree of interest in things seen.
• Psychogalvanometer: This tool is used to measure emotional reactions
such as interest and excitement. Measurement is done by measuring the
reactions in the skin. This tool is used for preparing advertising messages
and in pre-tests.

11. • Hidden TV Cameras: Used especially in large stores to observe
consumer behavior.
• Audiometer: It's a tool put on television. Determines when the TV is
turned on-off and which broadcasts are watched. This tool is used to
measure the effectiveness of television advertising. Determines how
many televisions are turned on during a particular ad display.
MECHANICAL OBSERVATION TOOLS

12. MYSTERY SHOPPING
• Wilson (1998a) defines mystery shoppers as researchers who “act as customers
or potential customers to monitor the quality of processes and procedures used
in the delivery of a service”.
• The researcher who conceals his or her identity may obtain information about
the product or service by going to the point of sale of the products or services,
may make purchases, may make complaints, and even under certain conditions
may make the return of the product and reports making observations regarding
these cases.
• For example, to measure if any complaint has been made toward a family with
loudly children in any vocational place, and how the staff managed this situation
and if they left satisfied with the services, a hidden client family can be created in
order to make special measurements.

13. PARTICIPANT VS.
NON-PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
• Participant observation is when you, as a researcher, participate in the activities
of the group being observed in the same manner as its members, with or without
their knowing that they are being observed.
• For example, to understand the living conditions of the unemployed people, data
collection by living as an unemployed among the unemployed. Or you might want
to study the life of prisoners and pretend to be a prisoner in order to do this.
• Non-participant observation is when you, as a researcher, do not get involved in
the activities of the group but remain a passive observer, watching and listening
to its activities and drawing conclusions from this.
• For example, you might want to study the functions carried out by nurses in a
hospital. As an observer, you could watch, follow and record the activities as they
are performed. After making a number of observations, conclusions could be
drawn about the functions nurses carry out in the hospital

14. OBSERVATION FORM
Want to find out who buys shampoos in the supermarket?
• WHO? Does the man or woman do the shopping, parents with
children or parents without children, or the child himself?
• WHAT? What does the buyer pay attention, the product brand, its
volume, its packaging, its contents or its price?
• WHEN? In which month, on what day and at what time does the
shopper shops?
• WHERE? Where did s/he buy, how long did s/he stay?
• HOW? How many products did the buyer buy?

16. PROBLEMS WITH USING
OBSERVATION
• When individuals or groups become aware that they are being
observed, they may change their behaviour.
• Hawthorne effect
• There is always the possibility of observer bias.
• The interpretations drawn from observations may vary from observer
to observer.
• There is the possibility of incomplete observation and/or recording,
which varies with the method of recording.

17. RECORDING OBSERVATIONS
• Narrative recording – in this form of recording the researcher records a description of the
interaction in his/her own words. Usually, a researcher makes brief notes while observing
the interaction.
• Using scales – at times some observers may prefer to develop a scale in order to rate
various aspects of the interaction or phenomenon. The recording is done on a scale
developed by the observer/researcher.
• Categorical recording – Sometimes an observer may decide to record his/her observation
using categories. The type and number of categories depend upon the type of interaction
and the observer’s choice about how to classify the observation. For example, passive/
active (two categories); introvert/extrovert (two categories); always/sometimes/never
(three categories); strongly agree/agree/uncertain/disagree/strongly disagree (five
categories).
• Recording on electronic devices – Observation can also be recorded on videotape or other
electronic devices and then analysed.

19. ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Ethnography is a research method in which the researcher:
✓is immersed in a social setting for an extended period of time;
✓makes regular observations of the behaviour of members of that setting;
✓listens to and engages in conversations;
✓interviews informants on issues that are not directly amenable to
observation or that the ethnographer is unclear about (or indeed for other
possible reasons);
✓collects documents about the group;
✓develops an understanding of the culture of the group and people’s
behaviour within the context of that culture;
✓and writes up a detailed account of that setting.

20. • Ethnography involves the observation and recording of conversations,
rituals, performances, ceremonies, artifacts, jokes, and stories.
• The ethnography tells a story about the experiences of others, as
interpreted by the researcher.
• Not only describes the practices of the culture but also analyzes the
functions and purposes of those events, describes the conditions
under which particular behaviors or practices occur, and suggests
some greater significance and deeper understanding of the culture.
• Ethnographies are variously described as cultural “maps” of human
social behavior, written representations of culture, stories of culture,
or cultural performances .
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

21. • A central tenet of the ethnographic method is that you must try to understand a culture from the
perspective of the members of that culture, not by comparing the culture to your own culture or
imposing your own interpretation on cultural behaviors.
• The challenge of ethnography is to “see” meaning from the perspective of the culture studied.
• Rosaldo, for example, explored the meaning of headhunting. He begins his book Culture and
Truth: “If you ask an Older Ilongot man of northern Luzon, Philippines, why he cuts off human
heads, his answer is brief, and one on which no anthropologist can readily elaborate.
• He says that rage, born of grief, impels him to kill his fellow human beings ”. Rosaldo, later
describes how appalling the Ilongot headhunters find war. Only if you understand headhunting as
a cleansing of grief, rather than as an act of aggression, is it possible to understand this paradox.
• Rosaldo explains that it was only after his wife, fellow ethnographer Michelle Rosaldo, fell to her
death from a cliff in the Philippines where they were conducting fieldwork that he began to
understand. Only then did he fully experience the rage, born of grief, of which the Ilongot
headhunters spoke.
ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Rosaldo, R. (1989). Culture and truth: The remaking of social analysis. Boston: Beacon Press .

22. • Online ethnography
• Adapts ethnographic research techniques to the study of cultures and communities emerging
through computer-mediated communications and uses information publicly available in online
forums.
• “Virtual communities of consumption”
• Data collection is directed at capturing three different types of data: The first is data that the
researcher directly copies from the computer-mediated communications of online community
members. Second is data that the researcher inscribes regarding observations of the community,
its members, interactions and meanings, and the researcher’s own participation. Finally,
netnographers may wish to approach individuals and interview them. E-mail is a common form.
• Should be considered to be more like content analysis.
NETNOGRAPHY RESEARCH

24. NEUROMARKETING
• Applying neuroscience techniques in marketing.
• Study and understand what the effects of advertising on the brain and how
it affects the behavior of potential customers.
• “a new way of knowing the consumer”
• The discipline that investigates and examines brain processes that explain
the behavior and decisions of individuals in the fields of action of
traditional marketing: market intelligence, product design and service,
communications, prices, brand positioning and sales channels.

25. • Limbic and Sensory Brain: This section of the brain is responsible for receiving all the senses
that enter the brain. This area is called the hypothalamus, thalamus, ventral medial area, basal
ganglia. These areas have mentioned many groups of cells with specific functions. These
functions are mainly the reception site of sensory stimuli. Sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch,
temperature, proprioception, and electrical activity.
• Reptilian Brain: This part of the brain is the lowest of the three and the evolution of the human
brain is the most animal, the most primary. This area is located in the brainstem and midbrain. It
is the area of the brain where unconscious aspects handled as breathing, the heart rate, and
some very animal impulses, and conservation of the species, protecting your family, etc.
NEUROMARKETING
• Rational or Cortical Brain: These areas of
the brain is gray matter, or area of the
cerebral cortex; remaining in the outermost
part of the brain.
• In these areas there are many areas with
many functions and are responsible for
coordinating all information received, every
cortex, it shares information between cells,
these areas making judgments and making
conscious decisions.

26. • To marketing specialists it is obligatory to know and understand the vocabulary
necessary to know how neuromarketing works.
• Ventral Roof Area, Front, and Back: In the hypothalamus. It is responsible for
receiving and outputting information of the hypothalamus.
• Ventral Ribbed: Comprises the “nucleus Acumbens”, olfactory tubercles, tail
caudate and putamen. They are responsible for receiving information which will
generate more addiction, which depends heavily on Acumbens core.
• Prefrontal Cortices Are Several: Orbitofrontal cortex, ventral lateral prefrontal
cortex, dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, prefrontal cortex Ventral Medial and
anterior cingulate Giro. They are responsible for receiving information across data
and make decisions.
• Supra Mammillary Nuclei: Located in the posterior hypothalamus. Reception
area of stimuli that remain involved in memory.
NEUROMARKETING

27. Does the brain sees what eyes can’t?
• Consciousness; awareness can be defined as being aware of the emotions,
thoughts and environment of one's own existence.
• According to Freud, the unconscious, which works well below the known
zone of consciousness, also affects the state of consciousness.
• Empirical findings about the unconscious reveal that the unconscious
includes repressed emotions, automatic skills, subconscious perception,
thoughts, habits and other automatic behaviors.
• Does the objects that the eye doesn’t see cause any reaction in the human
brain?

28. • The main purpose of the study is to find out if the brain reacts to
objects that flow too fast for the eye to see.
Does the brain sees what eyes can’t?

29. USING CELEBRITIES IN COMMERCIALS

30. USING CELEBRITIES IN COMMERCIALS

32. References
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Publishing Limited.
2. Bryman, A. (2012). “Social Research Methods”, 4th Edition, Oxford University Press.
3. Girişken, Y. (2015). “Gerçeği Algıla”, Beta.
4. Kothari, C. R. (2004). “Research Methodology – Methods and Techniques”, New Age
International Publishers.
5. Kurtuluş, K. (2010). “Araştırma Yöntemleri”, Beta Yayınları.
6. Kumar, R. (2011). “Research Methodology: A Step by Step Guide for Beginners”, SAGE
Publications, 3rd Edition.
7. Vanderstoep, S. W.; Johnston, D. D. (2009). “Research Methods for Everyday Life: Blending
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches”, Jossey-Bass, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
8. Yin, K. (2011). “Qualitative Research from Start to Finish”, The Guilford Press.
9. Valencia, E. (2017). “Neuromarketing Step by Step: Based on Scientific Publications”
10. Wilson, A.M. (1998a), “The role of mystery shopping in the measurement of service
performance”, Managing Service Quality, Vol.8 No. 6, pp. 414-420.
11. https://www.ashokcharan.com/Marketing-Analytics/~bm-eye-tracking.php