Evaluation of naturalistic observation TASK: Read through the description of observations in your booklet, then answer the big brother question and then use these slides to complete your evaluation notes Evaluation of naturalistic observation

ADVANTAGES Valuable as a preliminary research tool. It can therefore lead to the identification of an appropriate hypothesis for further investigation in a more controlled setting In certain circumstances it can lead to a high level of ecological validity since the pt will often be being observed in their natural setting.

DISADVANTAGES The Hawthorne effect may occur. This is when people know they are being observed, they change their behaviour due to the issues of evaluation apprehension (worrying about being judged) and social desirability bias (wanting to appear socially desirable – ie. Seen in a positive light). This will therefore reduce the internal validity of the research. Just read this bit! (It’s called the Hawthorne effect since researchers were investigating production levels at the Hawthorne Western Electric factory in Chicago. They found that both increased AND decreased lighting led to increased production in the workers i.e. because the workers were aware of being observed they worked harder.)

Observer bias might occur Observer bias might occur. This is when observers may interpret what they see in line with the expectations they have. It may affect how a particular behaviour is interpreted. E.g. a researcher might expect boys to be more aggressive than girls and so might interpret a boy pushing a child as aggressive, but might not if it were a girl doing it. One way to overcome this would be to have two observers.

Replication is an issue with naturalistic observations Replication is an issue with naturalistic observations. This is because it’s highly unlikely that all aspects of the observation would be the same. E.g. a different number of people present, etc therefore generalising the findings will also be difficult.