Naturalistic Observation and Case-Study Research Descriptive Methods

Naturalistic Observation Examples Charles Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle (the basis for his theory of natural selection) Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzees Dian Fossey’s study of the mountain gorilla Adeline Levine’s study of the Love Canal Rosenhan’s study of psychiatric hospitalization

Case-Study Examples Sigmund Freud’s study of patients, which formed the basis for his psychoanalytic theory E. L. Witmer’s study of children in the first psychology clinic in North America Jean Piaget’s study of the development of children, which led to numerous theories of child development

When to use Descriptive Methods Studying natural flow of behavior New research area Testing feasibility of a procedure Testing generalizability of laboratory findings

Problem Statements and Hypotheses Problem statements are often general and flexible Often evolve to accommodate new results Unable to test causal hypotheses with descriptive methods

Value of these methods Provide new descriptive information Can negate a general proposition Low cost

Challenge of Descriptive Research Can be very difficult to observe behavior in natural surroundings Often we are not sure what behaviors are important until after we have observed for a while Without the controls of the laboratory, participants are free to do what they want to do, and not what we are hoping to observe

Evaluating the Data The data from descriptive research is a rich set of information Must be cautious in interpreting data Limitations: Poor representativeness Poor replicability Limitations of the observer Going beyond the data

Poor Representativeness Small samples; non-randomly selected Rarely do the samples represent the population Dangerous to generalize findings to the general population

Poor Replicability In descriptive research Procedures are often not specified They may change as the study continues They are often unique to the observer Therefore, replication is very difficult

Limitations of the Observer Observational skills of the researcher Ex. specificity of observation procedures Specific procedures decrease flexibility Non-specific procedures increase possibility of experimenter biases (experimenter reactivity)

Going Beyond the Data One must be careful in drawing strong conclusions (don’t “over-interpret”)