Observational Research - Advantages and Disadvantages

Observational Research - Advantages and Disadvantages

1. Advantages

   • What people say they do is often different what they actually do so observations might be valid than questionaires.
   • Gives a more realist picture of spontaneous behaviour, likely to have a high ecological validity.
   • Provides a means of conducting preliminary investigations in a new area of research, to produce hypotheses for future investigations.

2. Disadvantages

   • Can be little or no control of EV which may mean something unknown to the observer may account for the behaviour observed.
   • Observer may 'see' what he or she expects to see (observer bias), different observers 'see' different things, leads to low-inter-rater reliability.
   • If Participants don't know they are being observed there are ethical problems. If participants know they are being observed they might alter their behaviour.