Compare and contrast naturalistic and structured observations

What will be an ideal response?

Observations of the behavior of children and adults can be made in different ways. One approach is to go into the field, or natural environment, and record the behavior of interest—a method called naturalistic observation. The great strength of naturalistic observation is that investigators can see directly the everyday behaviors they hope to explain. Naturalistic observation also has a major limitation: Not all individuals have the same opportunity to display a particular behavior in everyday life. Researchers commonly deal with this difficulty by making structured observations, in which the investigator sets up a laboratory situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has equal opportunity to display the response. The procedures used to collect systematic observations vary, depending on the research problem posed. Sometimes investigators choose to analyze the entire stream of behavior—everything said and done over a certain time period. Systematic observation provides invaluable information on how children and adults actually behave, but it tells us little about the reasoning behind their responses. For that information, researchers must turn to self-report techniques.