Natural vs.

Contrived (Artificial) Observation

Definition: Naturalistic observation is a research method commonly used by psychologists and other social scientists. This technique involves observing subjects in their natural environment. This type of research is often utilized in situations where conducting lab research is unrealistic, cost prohibitive or would unduly affect the subject's behaviour. Naturalistic observation differs from structured observation in that it involves looking at a behaviour as it occurs in its natural setting with no attempts at intervention on the part of the researcher.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Naturalistic Observation

Advantages 1. One of the advantages of this type of research is that it allows the researcher to directly observe the subject in a natural setting. 2. It allows researchers to study things that cannot be manipulated in a lab due to ethical concerns. For example, while it would be unethical to study the effects of imprisonment by actually confining subjects, researchers can gather information by using naturalistic observation in real prison settings. 3. It can help support the external validity of research. It is one thing to say that finding of a lab study will generalize to a larger population, but quite another to actually observe those finding actually occurring in a natural setting.

Disadvantages: 1. The disadvantages of naturalistic observation include the fact that it can be difficult to determine the exact cause of a behaviour and the experimenter cannot control for outside variables. 2. People may behaviour differently when they know they are being watched. 3. People may try to behave in a certain way in order to conform with what they think the research expects to see. 4. Different observers may draw different conclusions from the same witnessed behaviour. Data Collection Methods Used in Naturalistic Observation Researchers may utilize a number of different techniques to collect data from naturalistic observation. This might involve writing down the number of times a certain behaviour occurred in a specific period of time, or making an actual video-recording of the subjects of interest.

1. Tally counts: The observer writes down when and how many times certain behaviours occurred. 2. Observer narratives: The observer may take notes during the session and then go back later to try to collect data and discern behaviour patterns from these notes. 3. Audio or video recordings: Depending upon the type of behaviour being observed, the researchers might also decide to make actual audio or video-taped recordings of each observation session.s Examples of Naturalistic Observation Let's imagine that you want to study differences in risk taking behaviour between teenage boys and girls. You might choose to observe behaviour in a few different settings, such as on a sledding hill, a rock-climbing wall, an ice-skating rink and a bumper car ride. After you operationally define "risktaking behaviour," you would then observe teens in these settings and record every incidence of what you define as a risky behaviour. Some famous examples of naturalistic observations include Charles Darwin's journey aboard the HMS Beagle, which served as the basis for his theory of natural selection, and Jane Goodall's work studying the behaviour of chimpanzees. Artificial Technique: A distinction can be drawn between observations conducted in natural versus artificial settings. Much observation is conducted in real world contexts or, in other words, natural settings. However, observation is a legitimate method of data collection within the experimental research tradition. In experimental research, the relevant conditions (independent variables) are manipulated or contrived in systematic ways and the effect of these conditions on specified behaviours (dependent variables) is measured. In some sense at least, since a change is being introduced into the contextual conditions, the setting for this kind of intervention research can be described as artificial. The extent to which artificiality is introduced into the setting represents a challenge to the authenticity or validity of the research. Observation like all research methods can be seen as always involving some kind of balance or compromise between the interests of validity, reliability and feasibility. Natural vs. Contrived (Artificial) Observation 1. Natural observation: observing behaviour as it takes place in the environment E.g.: observing consumers go shopping in a supermarket Advantage: the observed reflects more accurately the true phenomenon Disadvantage: cost of waiting for the phenomenon to occur, the difficulty of measuring the phenomenon in a natural setting 2. Contrived observation: observing behaviour in an artificial environment E.g.: simulated market test

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