Observational methods in psychology

Observational methods in psychological research entail the observation and description of a subject's behavior. Researchers utilizing the observational method can exert varying amounts of control over the environment in which the observation takes place. This makes observational research a sort of middle ground between the highly controlled method of experimental design and the less structured approach of conducting interviews. Observational methods in psychological research entail the observation and description of a subject's behavior. Researchers utilizing the observational method can exert varying amounts of control over the environment in which the observation takes place. This makes observational research a sort of middle ground between the highly controlled method of experimental design and the less structured approach of conducting interviews. Time sampling is a sampling method that involves the acquisition of representative samples by observing subjects at different time intervals. These time intervals can be chosen randomly or systematically. If a researcher chooses to use systematic time sampling, the information obtained would only generalize to the one time period in which the observation took place. In contrast, the goal of random time sampling would be to be able to generalize across all times of observation. Depending on the type of study being conducted, either type of time sampling can be appropriate. An advantage to using time sampling is that you gain the ability to control the contexts to which you'll eventually be able to generalize. However, time sampling is not useful if the event pertaining to your research question occurs infrequently or unpredictably, because you will often miss the event in the short time period of observation. In this scenario, event sampling is more useful. In this style of sampling, the researcher lets the event determine when the observations will take place. For example: if the research question involves observing behavior during a specific holiday, one would use event sampling instead of time sampling. Situation sampling involves the study of behavior in many different locations, and under different circumstances and conditions. By sampling different situations, researchers reduce the chance that the results they obtain will be particular to a certain set of circumstances or conditions. For this reason, situation sampling significantly increases the external validity of observational findings. Compared to when researchers only observe particular types of individuals, researchers using situation sampling can increase the diversity of subjects within their observed sample.Researchers may determine which subjects to observe by either selecting subjects systematically (every 10th student in a cafeteria, for example) or randomly, with the goal of obtaining a representative sample of all subjects. For a good example of situation sampling, see this study by LaFrance and Mayo concerning the differences in the use of gaze direction as a regulatory mechanism in conversation. In this study, pairs of individuals were observed in college cafeterias, restaurants, airport and hospital waiting rooms, and business-district fast-food outlets. By using situation sampling, the investigators were able to observe a wide range of people who differed in age, sex, race, and socioeconomic class, thus increasing the external validity of their research findings. If researchers wish to study how subjects normally behave in a given setting, they will want to utilize observation without intervention, also known as naturalistic observation. This type of observation is useful because it allows observers to see how individuals act in natural settings, rather than in the more artificial setting of a lab or experiment. A natural setting can be defined as a place in which behavior ordinarily occurs and that has not been arranged specifically for the purpose of observing behavior. Direct observation is also necessary if researchers want to study something that is unethical to control for in a lab. For instance, the IRB does not allow researchers interested in investigating verbal abuse between adolescent couples to place couples in laboratory settings where verbal abuse is encouraged. However, by placing oneself in a public space where this abuse may occur, one can observe this behavior without being responsible for causing it. Naturalistic observation can also be used to verify external validity, permitting researchers to examine whether study findings generalize to real world scenarios. Naturalistic observation may also be conducted in lieu of structured experiments when implementing an experiment would be too costly. Observation without intervention may be either overt (meaning that subjects are aware they are being observed) or covert (meaning that subjects are not aware).