Observations

• Naturalistic:

  • There is realism as there is no manipulation of the environment, people will behave normally, high ecological validity and generalise to real life
•  Naturalistic:

  There is a lack of control of variables, no replication, no checking for validity and reliability, we can’t check for patterns
• Overt and covert Evaluation: 

  • For observations, for overt observations, this can have low validity as it is likely that there will be social desirability bias, demand characteristics and observer effects, this means low internal validity
• Overt and covert observation:

  • Lack of ethical issues as you have informed consent or you don’t
• Participant/ non-participant evaluation:

  • For participant, more insights into a group’s behaviour may be gained, researcher understands the behaviour more, more validity 
• Participant/ non-participant evaluation:

  • Difficult to be a objective researcher, presence may affect the group, lack internal validity