Observational Techniques

The 3 most important are controlled, naturalistic and participant.

Controlled

The researcher exercise control over the environment in which the observations are made.

Advantages:

• Cause and effect can be established
• If the situation is well controlled there is less risk of extraneous variables influencing participants behaviour
• More complete information is obtained than conventional experimental studies in which participants are only required to produce limited  responses

Weaknesses:

• Carrying out studies in artificial situations reduces ecological validity and can influence behaviour
• The artificial situation may make it hard to generalise findings
• Problems such as investigator effects and demand characteristics

Naturalistic

An unobtrusive observational study conducted in a natural setting.

Advantages:

• If the participants are…