Unit V Discussion

The lecture for this unit discussed naturalistic, participant, and laboratory observation research.

Think about a situation where you may have been involved with one of these observational methods.

Explain the situation and your perception of the effectiveness of this method with respect to obtaining credible information.

Reference

Hale, J. (2011, September 27). The 3 Basic Types of Descriptive Research Methods.

Student response re Unit V DBQ

Many, many, MANY years ago when I was an undergrad just starting my freshman year getting my degree in Psychology, one of the requirement was we had to participate in a lab wherein we were being tested and observed by graduate students for testing they had created and needed to evaluate and report.

Looking back, I am not sure how credible the observation would have been. We were just starting out at college, 17 to 18 year olds, and not sure we grasped what the experiment was or what needed to be observed.

We were so frightened that I don't know if we were too nervous to be valid participants or if we skewed the results in any way thinking we knew what was being observed and ‘fixed' our responses. Maybe that was actually the test and observation.