Example of my writings :

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATIONS, UNDERSTANDING AND EXAMPLES

Naturalistic observation is a research method used in psychology and other social sciences in which
research participants are observed in their natural environment. Unlike laboratory experiments which
involve testing hypotheses and controlling variables, naturalistic observations only require recording
what is observed in a particular setting.
Also :
• Naturalistic observation is a research method in which other people or subjects are observed in their
natural setting.
• Psychologists and other social scientists use naturalistic observations to study certain social or
cultural settings that cannot be investigated in other ways, such as prisons, bars, and hospitals.
• Naturalistic observation has several drawbacks, including the inability to control variables and lack
of replication.

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION APPLICATIONS:

Naturalistic observation involves observing subjects of interest in their normal, everyday settings. It is
sometimes referred to as fieldwork because it requires the researcher to go out into the field (a natural
setting) to collect data about the participants. Naturalistic observation traces its roots back to
anthropological research and animal behavior. For example, American (western) cultural
anthropologists use naturalistic observations to study the daily lives of various groups in the South
Pacific.
This approach does not necessarily require researchers to observe people in such exotic environments.
This can be done in any kind of social or organizational setting, including offices, schools, bars,
prisons, dorm rooms, online message boards, or just about any other place where people can be
observed. For example, psychologists use naturalistic observation to investigate how people make
decisions in various professions. To do so, he accompanies people—from milkmen to cashiers to
machine operators—as they go about their routine work routines.
Naturalistic observation is valuable when a researcher wants to learn more about people in a particular
social or cultural setting but cannot gather information in any other way. Sometimes studying people
in the lab can affect their behavior, high costs, or both. For example, if a researcher wanted to study
buyer behavior in the weeks leading up to the National holiday, it would be impractical to set up shop
in the lab. Then, even if the researchers did, it's unlikely to get the same response from participants
when shopping in a real-world store.
Naturalistic observation offers the opportunity to observe buyer behavior, and based on the
researcher's observations of the situation, has the potential to generate new ideas for certain
hypotheses or research avenues.
This method requires researchers to immerse themselves in the setting being studied. This usually
involves taking excessive field notes. Researchers can also interview specific people involved in the
situation, collect background documents, and make audio or video recordings. In his research on
decision making in different occupations, for example, Scribner not only recorded details, he also
collected every piece of written material his participants read and produced, and photographed the
equipment they used.

Author : Amay Suryadi

SCOPE OF NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
Before going into the field, researchers who make naturalistic observations must determine the scope
of their research. While the researcher may want to learn everything about people in the chosen
setting, this may not be realistic given the complexity of human behavior. As a result, researchers
must focus observations on the specific behaviors and responses they are most interested in studying.
For example, the researcher may choose to collect quantitative data by counting the number of times a
particular behavior occurs. So if researchers were interested in dog owners' interactions with their
dogs, they might count the number of times the owner spoke to his dog during a walk. On the other
hand, much of the data collected during naturalistic observation, including notes, audio and video
recordings and interviews, is qualitative data that requires the researcher to describe, analyze, and
interpret what is observed.

SAMPLING METHOD
Another way researchers can limit the scope of research is by using certain sampling methods. This
will allow them to collect a representative sample of data on the subject's behavior without having to
observe everything the subject is doing all the time.
Sampling methods include:
• Time sampling, which means the researcher will observe the subject at different time intervals. This
interval can be random or specific. For example, the researcher may decide to only observe the
subject each morning for one hour.
• Situation sampling, meaning that the researcher will observe the same subject in various situations.
For example, if a researcher wants to observe the behavior of Star Wars fans' responses to the latest
film release in the franchise, they can observe fan behavior on the red carpet of film premieres, during
screenings, and on online Star Wars message boards.
• Event sampling, which means the researcher will only record certain behaviors and ignore others.
For example, when observing interactions between children on a playground, researchers may decide
that they are only interested in observing how children decide to take turns on a slide while ignoring
behavior on other playground equipment.

PROS AND CONS OF NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION

There are a number of advantages to naturalistic observation. This includes:
• The study has greater external validity because the researcher's data comes directly from observing
the subject in his natural environment.
• Observing people in the field can lead to glimpses of behavior that would never occur in a
laboratory, perhaps leading to unique insights.
• Researchers can learn things that are impossible or unethical to reproduce in the laboratory. For
example, while it is unethical to study how people cope with the effects of violence by manipulating
exposure in the laboratory, researchers can collect data on this subject by observing participants in
support groups.

Author : Amay Suryadi

Despite their value in certain situations, naturalistic observations can have a number of drawbacks,
including:
• Naturalistic observational studies usually involve observing a number of settings. As a result, the
subjects studied were limited to age, gender, ethnicity, or certain other characteristics, which means
the study findings cannot be generalized to the population as a whole.
• Researchers cannot control for different variables as they can in the laboratory, which makes
naturalistic observational studies less reliable and more difficult to replicate.
• Lack of control over external variables also makes it impossible to determine the causes of the
observed behavior of the researcher.
• If subjects know they are being watched, it has the potential to change their behavior.

Author : Amay Suryadi