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Observational Method needs to be made, in what form the observation will be recorded, and what Observation is a very powerful tool of psychological enquiry. It is an effective method methods will be used to analyse the observed of describing behaviour. In our daily life, we behaviour. remain busy with observing numerous things Types of Observation throughout the day. Many times, we do not take notice of what we are seeing or what we Observation can be of the following types : have seen. We see but we do not observe. We (a) Naturalistic vs Controlled Observation : remain aware of only a few things that we see When observations are done in a natural or daily. Have you experienced such a thing? You real-life settings (in the above example, it was may also have experienced that if you carefully a school in which observation was made), it is observe a person or event for some time, you called naturalistic observation. In this case come to know many interesting things about the observer makes no effort to control or the person or the event. A scientific manipulate the situation for making an observation differs from day-to-day observation. This type of observation is observation in many respects. These are : conducted in hospitals, homes, schools, day (a) Selection : Psychologists do not observe all care centers, etc. However, many a times you might need to control certain factors that the behaviour that they encounter. Rather, determine behaviour as they are not the focus they select a particular behaviour for observation. For example, you may be of your study. For this reason, many of the interested to know how children studying in studies in psychology are conducted in the laboratory. For example, if you read Box 2.1, Class XI spend their time in school. Two things you will come to know that smoke could only are possible at this stage. As a researcher, you might think that you have a fairly good idea be introduced in a controlled laboratory about what happens in school. You might situation. This type of observation, called Controlled Laboratory Observation, actually, prepare a list of activities and go to the schoolis obtained in laboratory experiments. with a view to finding out their occurrences. Alternatively, you might think that you do not (b) Non-ParticipantvsParticipantObservation : know what happens in the school and, by your Observation can be done in two ways. One, observation you would like to discover it. you may decide to observe the person or event (b) Recording : While observing, a researcher from a distance. Two, the observer may become part of the group being observed. In records the selected behaviour using different the first case, the person being observed may means, such as marking tallies for the already not be aware that s/he is being observed. For identified behaviour whenever they occur, taking notes describing each activity in greater example, you want to observe the pattern of interaction between teachers and students in detail using short hand or symbols, a particular class. There are many ways of photographs, video recording, etc. achieving this goal. You can install a video (c) Analysis of Data : After the observations camera to record the classroom activities, have been made, psychologists analyse which you can see later and analyse. whatever they have recorded with a view to Alternatively, you may decide to sit in a corner of the class without interfering or participating derive some meaning out of it. It is important to know that making good in their everyday activities. This type of observations is a skill. A good observer knows observation is called non-participant what s/he is looking for, whom s/he wants to observation. The danger in this type of set- up is that the very fact that someone observe, when and where the observation 25 Chapter 2 • Methods of Enquiry in Psychology Reprint 2026-27