Observational Method

Observation is one of the most powerful tools of psychological enquiry, and an especially effective way of describing behaviour. In everyday life we 'see' far more than we consciously 'observe' - most of what passes before our eyes goes unnoticed - but if a person or event is watched carefully over time, a great deal of useful information emerges. A genuinely scientific observation differs from this casual, everyday kind of looking in three important respects. First, selection: rather than trying to take in everything that happens, the researcher deliberately selects a specific, well-defined behaviour to observe, for example, narrowing down the broad idea of 'how Class XI students spend their time in school' into a precise, workable focus. Second, recording: whatever behaviour has been selected must be captured through some systematic means, such as tally marks each time a target behaviour occurs, detailed notes in shorthand, photographs, or video recordings. Third, analysis: once observations have been recorded, the researcher analyses them to draw out their meaning. Good observation is itself a skill: a good observer knows exactly what they are looking for, whom they want to observe, and when, where and how the observation and its recording should be carried out. Observation can be classified along two independent dimensions. On one dimension, it can be naturalistic (conducted in a real-life setting such as a school, hospital or home, with no attempt to control or manipulate the situation) or controlled/laboratory-based (conducted where certain factors are deliberately controlled because they are not the actual focus of the study; most laboratory experiments technically involve this type of observation). On the other dimension, it can be non-participant (the observer stays at a distance and does not join the group being observed, for instance recording a classroom on video, or sitting quietly in a corner without interacting) or participant (the observer actually becomes part of the group, first building rapport so that members come to accept them as one of their own, though how deeply the observer gets involved depends on the study's focus). The great strength of observation is that it allows behaviour to be studied exactly as it naturally occurs, without an …