What are the advantages and disadvantages of observation in a laboratory setting?

What will be an ideal response?

Observation in a laboratory setting gives a researcher the advantage of having control over the environment of the observed. Thus the researcher may be able to use a more rigorous experimental design than is possible in a natural, uncontrolled setting. Also, observation may be easier and more convenient to record and preserve, since one-way windows, videotape machines, and other observational aids are more readily available in a laboratory. A disadvantage of laboratory observation is that subjects usually know they are being observed and therefore may alter their behavior, raising questions about the validity of the data collected. The use of aids that allow the observer to be physically removed from the setting and laboratories that are designed to be as inviting and as natural as possible may lead subjects to behave more naturally and less self-consciously.