Naturalistic Observationand 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 gorillaAdeline Levine’s study of the Love CanalRosenhan’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 Statementsand Hypotheses

Problem statements are often general and flexibleOften 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 representativenessPoor replicabilityLimitations of the observerGoing 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 researchProcedures are often not specified They may change as the study continuesThey are often unique to the observer

Therefore, replication is very difficult

Limitations of the Observer

Observational skills of the researcherEx. specificity of observation procedures

Specific procedures decrease flexibilityNon-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”)