Chapter 7

Naturalistic Methods

Naturalistic Research

• Designed to describe and measure the behavior of people or animals as it occurs in their everyday lives.

• Recorded as it occurs• Recorded by others• Recorded by video

Ecological Validity

• An advantage of naturalistic research is that it has ecological validity.

• Ecological validity refers to the extent to which the research is conducted in situations that are similar to the everyday life experiences of the participants

Observational Research

• Observational research involves making observations of behavior and recording those observations in an objective manner

Unacknowledged Participant

• When an observer infiltrates an environment, without letting the people who will be observed know, that they are being observed.

• Ethics problems• May become too personal for observer• Observer may influence the processes that are

observed

Acknowledged Participant

• When an observer enters an environment and lets the people who will be observed know that they are being observed.

• Reactivity• Reactivity may decrease over time if the

observer is eventually accepted by the community being observed

Alternatives to Acknowledged and Unacknowledged

• Use of one-way glass

• Recording activities without interaction

Case Studies

• Descriptive records of one or more individuals’ experiences and/or behavior.

• Qualitative

• Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud

Systematic Coding MethodsDeciding What We Observe

• Systematic Observation - involves specifying ahead of time exactly which observations are to be made on which people and in which times and places.

• These decisions are made on the basis of theoretical expectation about the types of events that are going to be of interest.

Archival Research

• Archival Research – based on an analysis of any type of existing records of public behavior.

• Newspaper Articles• Speeches• Letters of Public Figures• TV & Radio Broadcasts• Internet Websites• Existing Surveys

Question 1

• Discuss the situations (3) in which a researcher may choose to use a naturalistic research approach and the questions such an approach can and cannot answer.

Question 2

• What are the pros and cons of a researcher’s decisions about observing versus participating and about being acknowledged versus unacknowledged in naturalistic observation?

Question 3

• Explain what a case study is. What are the limitations of case studies for the study of human behavior?

Question 4

• What kinds of questions can be answered through archival research, and what kinds of data might be relevant?