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Observational Research

This document discusses different types of observational research methods. Naturalistic observation involves observing behaviors as they naturally occur without any manipulation by the researcher. Participant observation involves the researcher inserting themselves into the group being studied to gain access to behaviors they otherwise couldn't observe. While this gives insights not available through naturalistic observation alone, it risks influencing the behaviors being studied and losing researcher objectivity. The document provides examples of famous studies using each method and discusses their strengths and weaknesses.

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Khawaja Zubair Ahmed
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176 views4 pages

Observational Research

This document discusses different types of observational research methods. Naturalistic observation involves observing behaviors as they naturally occur without any manipulation by the researcher. Participant observation involves the researcher inserting themselves into the group being studied to gain access to behaviors they otherwise couldn't observe. While this gives insights not available through naturalistic observation alone, it risks influencing the behaviors being studied and losing researcher objectivity. The document provides examples of famous studies using each method and discusses their strengths and weaknesses.

Uploaded by

Khawaja Zubair Ahmed
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH

Overview:Observational research is type of correlational (i.e., nonexperimental)


research in which a researcher observes ongoing behavior. There are a
variety of types of observational research, each of which has both strengths
and weaknesses. These types are organized below by the extent to which an
experimenter intrudes upon or controls the environment.

Naturalistic Observation:Naturalistic observation, also known as nonparticipant


observation, has no intervention by a researcher. It is simply studying
behaviors that occur naturally in natural contexts, unlike the artificial
environment of a controlled laboratory setting. Importantly, in
naturalistic observation, there is no attempt to manipulate variables.
Strength: We can measure what behavior is really like. After all, the
researcher is observing real-life. This type of research, then, has high
ecological validity (the extent to which a situation generalizes to reallife circumstances).
Weakness: We don't know the cause of behaviors, nor do we know if
any observation is representative of what normally occurs.

Criteria for Naturalistic Observation:There are three specific criteria for an observational research
study to be considered 'naturalistic.' If any one of these three are
violated, the research is no longer naturalistic observation.
1) The setting must be natural. A researcher cannot adjust, control,
change, or influence the setting or environment.
2) The event must be natural. If you're interested in memory for
arguments and you wanted to use naturalistic observation, you'd
basically have to wait until an argument to occur to collect data -- bad
idea. Staging a fake argument, however real it may seem, is not a
natural event and thereby violates this criterion.
3) The behavior must be natural. This requires that a researcher be

unnoticed. For example, if you're measuring walking speed, you have


to make sure you are sneaky about it; if anyone notices you with a
stopwatch and a notepad, their behavior will likely change as a results,
thereby violating this criterion.

Violations of the Criteria:Why would it matter that one of the above criteria is violated?
Because of reactivity; people you're observing will act differently if they know
the situation isn't natural, that the event isn't natural, or that they're being
measured. Is this a problem in laboratory research? Don't participants know
they're being observed and measured? Wouldn't this affect their behavior?
Absolutely, positively, yes! But for whatever reason, reactivity is (for the most
part) ignored in laboratory research.

Participant Observation:Here, unlike naturalistic observation, the researcher intervenes in the


environment. Basically, this refers to inserting yourself as a member of
a group in order to observe behavior you wouldn't otherwise have
access to. Although it seems like naturalistic observation and
participant observation are simply categories, you should understand
that there is a really a continuum of intrusion into the environment. It
depends on the extent to which the researcher is involved in the
research study. For example, if someone sets up an event (e.g., putting
trash in a path to see who picks it up), this is not naturalistic
observation (see criteria above). This is also not participant
observation research because the researcher is not a part of the group
being observed. Think of this as a continuum with naturalistic
observation on one end and participant observation on the other.
Here are two famous examples of participant observation:

Example 1:- David Rosenhan (On Being Sane in Insane


Places, 1973)
Rosenhan was interested in how diagnoses of mental illness
were made. He and seven associates went to different mental
institutions and simply said they were hearing voices. They were all
admitted to the hospitals, despite the fact that they all acted normally.
The range of stays in the hospitals was from a low of 9 days to a high
of 52 days (yikes!). It seems the people who knew the researchers

weren't real patients were the real patients themselves! When the
eight were discharged, it wasn't on the basis of misdiagnosis but
"schizophrenia in remission." Rosenhan would have never been able to
have the insight into how labels, diagnoses, and treatments were given
without acting as a participant in the observation.

Example 2:- Leon Festinger (1956) - Doomsday Cult


Festinger was interested in cult members' attitudes and beliefs.
Of course, you cannot use naturalistic observation in this study, so the
reasonable alternative was participant observation. How did Festinger
do this? He joined the cult (and obviously, didn't tell them he was a
psychologist). This particular cult thought the world was going to end
on a particular day. Festinger was interested in how the beliefs and
attitudes of the cult's members would react when (or...if?) the world
didn't end. When that date came and went, most people would
probably think belief in the cult would wane. Amazingly, after the world
didn't end, the strength of the cult members' beliefs actually increased.
Why? Because they thought the world didn't end because of their
prayers. Festinger would never have been able to research this without
becoming both a participant and an observer in his research.

Advantages of Participant Observation Research


The advantages probably seem obvious to you.
1)Participant observation research allows one to gain information one
wouldn't have otherwise had access to.
2) Secondly, behaviors remain relatively natural, thereby giving the
measurements high external validity.

Disadvantages of Participant Observation Research


There are a variety of disadvantages.
1) First, the people being observed have no opportunity to provide
informed consent to be a participant in the research. This is a serious
ethical consideration that should not be taken lightly.
2) Second, the researcher loses objectivity. How can a researcher be a
participant in the observation and remain completely neutral? It's
impossible. You'll form opinions and change your behavior accordingly.

In the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, Dr. Zimbardo acted as the


prison warden, despite the fact that he was the principal investigator.
This was unfortunate because he lost his sense of objectivity about the
study. He, like the "prisoners" and "guards" truly acted the role and
could not see that he should have stopped the study earlier.
3)The third potential disadvantage of participant observation research
is that your participation in the study in likely to influence what you're
measuring. That is, you'll probably influence the data because you're
interacting with your observations. This can sometimes be remedied by
using observers who are blind to the purpose of the study.

Other Types of Observational Research


Case Study:This is a type of observational research that involves a thorough
descriptive analysis of a single individual, group, or event. We may learn
more about this later. For now, you should understand that this is a type of
observational research.

Archival Research:Archival research involves an analysis of already-existing data. An


hypothesis is generated and then tested by analyzing data that have already
been collected. This is a useful approach when one has access to large
amounts of information collected over long periods of time. Such databases
are available, for example, in longitudinal research that collects information
from the same individuals over many years.

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