2 Group Assignment 2:Naturalistic Observation

Due: 8 December, by email

2.1 Background information:

Naturalistic observation is a form of descriptive research. It involves watching and recording behavior in its natural environment. Naturalistic observation does not explain behavior, nor does it enable the researcher to determine what causes the behavior (a frequency or an association claim). Rather, it simply describes behavior. Naturalistic observation is a very important tool for studying behavior in the environment in which it occurs without any interventions.

2.2 Ob jectives:

This assignment is designed to give you hands-on experience in conducting a naturalistic observation. By completing this assignment, you should gain some understanding of the decisions and procedures associated with doing a naturalistic observation, including issues such as inter-rater reliability and biases in conducting research (e.g., hindsight bias, confirmation bias). You should understand the limitations of drawing conclusions from the naturalistic observation. You should also be able to explain how naturalistic observation differs from the other research methods discussed in class (surveys and experiments).

2.3 Timetable:

• 6 October: Brainstorming possible examples of natural behavior (in class) • 7 – 19 October: Finalizing the topic and creating categories for observation • 20 October: Observation plan (in class)
• 28 October – 2 November: Piloting
• 3 – 9 November: Data collection
• 4 – 16 November: Data analysis
• 17 November – 7 December: Writing a report
• 8 December: Submission

2.4 Observation Plan:

Your group will have the opportunity to study a behavior in Staten Island that you find particularly interesting. You will sample behavior occurring in the natural environment and in the public domain **(spying is not permitted). Naturalistic observations help us describe behavior (and generate hy- potheses). This method can also be used to test a hypothesis. You should develop your own hypothesis (an association claim that tests a relationship between two variables) and then conduct a naturalistic observation to test it. For example, suppose you wanted to determine whether height was related to exercise equipment behaviors. You had a hunch that taller people were more likely to adjust exercise equipment than were shorter people. You could state your hypothesis as ”Height is related to exercise equipment behaviors; taller people are more likely than shorter people to adjust exercise equipment.

You would then conduct a naturalistic observation to test this hypothesis (e.g. observe and record the number of tall people and short people who adjust or don’t adjust the exercise equipment at the gym).

Select two variables, one a naturally occurring nominal (grouping) variable of the categorical type with two levels that can be measured easily. Some examples of possible categorical variables are time of day (morning, evening), gender (female, male), handedness (left, right), classroom seating (straight rows, circle or U-shape). Then select a target behavioral variable of either categorical or continuous type that you will observe. Be sure to pick an easily observable, specific target behavior that you believe will be related to your categorical variable. Also, be sure to pick a target behavior that occurs frequently in some environment in Staten Island (so you don’t waste time waiting for the behavior to occur). Some examples of target variables are aggressiveness, friendliness, performance on some task, or health-related behaviors. You will need to operationally define your variable in terms of two or more easily distinguishable levels (e.g., selects milk or no milk, holds door for others or not, makes basketball shot or not, smiles or not, washes hands or not).

After you have defined your variables and selected observation locations, your group should fill out the Observation Plan (see below).

Considerations in planning the observations

• What type of target variable have you selected? How will you measure (scale of measurement) it so that you can use statistics to summarize and analyze your results?
• Where and when will you make your observations? How will you be sure that they are as unobtrusive as possible? (You must not intervene in any way in the situation, and you should not invade the privacy of your participants. The target behavior should be public and clearly visible from a safe location.)
• How will you select the sample you will observe (e.g., randomly, every third person, or every person)? This will be especially important if you are in a setting in which there are more people than you can tally at once.
• How much time will be needed for your observations? As a general rule of thumb, each student should spend at least one hour making observations, with some variation allowed as appropriate for the needs of your study. You will record the time you spend on your Log Sheet. You should try to complete the data collection in no more than two hours of observation per group member. It is important that the times you select will yield as many observations as possible of the behavior you want to study.

2.5 Conducting your Study: Log Sheets

1. After your Observation Plan is completed and approved by the instructor (20 October), your group should begin data collection. Discuss the categories (coding scheme) that all of you will use to code your observations. Do a pilot observation TOGETHER by observing a few participants and compare your answers to make sure you agree on how to count the target behaviors (interrater reliability issue.)
2. Depending on the specific target behavior, all together your group should try to collect observa- tions on 10 participants per group member (30 total).
3. Record your observations on your individual Log Sheet and record the location, time, date, and time spent in the observations.
4. All group members should complete their data collection by November 10. Then you will to com- bine your individual observations, analyze the pooled data from your group using the spreadsheet, and start writing a APA-formatted report.