The Naturalist Observation Method of Research

General:

The naturalistic observation is a type of study classified under the broader category of field studies; non-experimental approaches used in the field or in real-life settings. In the naturalistic observation method the researcher very carefully observes and records some behavior or phenomenon, sometimes over a prolonged period, in its natural setting.

The subjects or phenomena are not directly interfered with in any way. In the social sciences this usually involves observing humans or animals as they go about their activities in real life settings. In the natural sciences this may involve observing an animal or groups of animals or some physical phenomena, such as the eruption of a volcano.

Strength:

The major strength of this method is that it allows researchers to observe behavior in the setting in which it normally occurs rather than the artificial and limited setting of the laboratory. Further uses might include studying nature for its own sake or using nature to validate some laboratory finding or theoretical concept.

Limitations:

The limitations of this method are many.

First and foremost this is a descriptive method, not an explanatory one. That is, without the controlled conditions of the laboratory, conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships cannot be drawn. Behavior can only be described, not explained.

This method can also take a great amount of time. Researchers may have to wait for some time to observe the behavior or phenomenon of interest.

Further limitations include the difficulty of observing behavior without disrupting it and the difficulty of coding results in a manner appropriate for statistical analysis.

Examples

Biology

Are Raptors (Eagles of instance) Capable of Hunting in Packs?

Our usual image of birds of prey is the lone eagle soaring high and solitary, waiting to dive with tremendous velocity on its hapless prey. But do they also work together, like wolves?

Dr. David Ellis, an ecologist and raptor expert with the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, describes a number of observations in the wild in which birds of prey were seen in cooperative hunting.

One instance involved an adult and juvenile golden eagle attacking a fox. The juvenile would dive at the fox from behind causing it to turn and snap. The adult would then attack from the other direction. After about four repetitions the adult finally sank its talons into the fox and was then joined by the juvenile for the final kill.

Dim Forest, Bright Chimp

Do chimpanzees use tools and hunt in groups?

Two scientists, Christopher Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, hoped that by studying a group of chimpanzees in their natural setting they might shed new light on theories of human evolution. They conducted a long-term study of a group of chimps in the Tai National Park, in the Republic of the Ivory Coast. They were interested in particular in tool use and cooperative hunting and sharing of food.

Chimps were observed using stone hammers with great precision to crack nuts with hard shells. They were also observed hunting other monkeys in a cooperative fashion. They would surround a group of smaller monkeys (colobus) and rapidly collapse the circle until one was able to make a kill. This food source was then shared according to the hierarchy within the troop.

Geology

Extraterrestrial Cause for Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction

Did a large meteor impact 65 million years ago cause the extinction of the dinosaurs?

The Earth's fossil records indicate that several times - large numbers of species suddenly disappeared all over the planet. One of the more well-known examples is at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago, where not only the great land dwelling dinosaurs disappeared, but also winged reptiles, marine reptiles, and ocean dwelling shellfish (ammonites), snails, fish, and plankton.

In the late 1970s, scientists led by Luis Alvarez of the University of California, Berkeley, were studying the rock record representing the contact between Cretaceous and Tertiary age sediments. Near the town of Gubbio, Italy, they had found a one centimeter thick layer of clay that marked this boundary. Their goal was to determine the length of time it would take to deposit this layer of clay. The approach was to observe the amount of the trace element iridium, which comes to earth yearly in constant amounts, transported by cosmic dust.

They were surprised to find that the amount of iridium in the clays was much too high (by more than a factor of 10) to be explained by the average influx of cosmic dust. Soon, similar iridium "spikes" were found from more than 70 locations around the world where sediments marked the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Other rare elements were found, as well as microscopic glass globules, and minerals that showed evidence of meteor-impact shock metamorphism.

Alvarez and associates proposed that the observed evidence recorded the impact and explosion of a large asteroid, between 6 and 14 kilometers in diameter. The energy of such an impact is the same as 100,000,000 megatons of TNT.

However, it was the aftereffect of the event, which caused the mass extinction’s. Large clouds of dirt and dust filled the atmosphere, blocking out sunlight for years, reducing photosynthesis, and destroying a large portion of the food chain. Most plants and trees died, starving the large herbivores, and as a result, starving the carnivores who preyed on them.

Once the skies had cleared, only the plants that could reproduce from seeds could grow again, and only animals that fed on insects and decayed vegetation had survived (small mammals).

The impact theory of Alvarez and others caused great debate among geologists, which has not subsided. Some have criticized that lack of an identified impact crater, and others have suggested that a huge series of volcanic eruptions could have produced the iridium spikes as well as producing the deadly clouds of sunlight-blocking ash.

Yet, the Alvarez impact theory does support the observed evidence in the rock record. This is a typical approach in the field of geology where one cannot directly observe natural processes but must infer them from present observations.

The August 7, 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helen’s

How do you measure a high-speed volcanic flow? An observer uses a camera, a timer, and the laws of physics to calculate the speed from an eruption at Mount St. Helen’s.

Volcanic eruptions have played a part in forming the Earth's atmosphere as well as many of its land forms both on land and under water. The geologic record contains evidence of eruptions much larger and explosive than any witnessed and even when it is possible to study an erupting volcano, direct observations are, needless to say, dangerous, and rare.

The August 7, 1980, eruption of Mount St. Helen’s was a unique opportunity to measure the speed of a hot ash flow. Rick Hoblitt, a Geologist for the US Geological Survey, was close to the mountain and recorded a series of photographs of a small ash cloud that rapidly descended the mountain.

Using the time stamp on his camera, Hoblitt was later able to locate the geographic position of the flow front at discrete time intervals. By using the simple velocity equation:

Velocity = distance / time

He was able to determine the speed of the volcanic flow between subsequent photographs. This was one of the first times that the velocity of an ash-flow was recorded, and showed how it varied with changes in slope and channel width as it descended the volcano.

Psychology

The Chimpanzees of Gombe

The common chimpanzee is our closest (genetically) living relative. Perhaps we can learn something about our own nature by studying these animals.

What social structures do chimpanzees form?

What are their mating patterns?

What are the roles played by male and female chimps within their social organization? What pattern constitutes a family?

How are offspring cared for and how do they fit into the social structure?

These are just a few of the questions asked by Jane Goodall who spent three decades observing chimpanzees in their natural environment in East Africa (Goodall, 1986). The above questions would have been impossible to answer from observations in a zoo because of the artificially imposed composition of the colony.

Just one tidbit from her observations was that colonies usually consist of two to three dozen adult males and females and their offspring. When females are sexually receptive, they are likely to mate with most of the adult males in the colony.

Sex Differences in Children's Risk-Taking Behavior

Popular belief has it that males are bigger risk takers than females. Is this true?

Because of a lack of empirical evidence on this, Ginsburg and Miller (1982) set out to find out if young boys or girls are more willing to take risks. They chose the naturalistic observation method because they wanted to study this behavior in the real world rather than the laboratory.

The setting they chose was the San Antonio Zoo. They operationally defined risk-taking and measured it in four ways:

·         riding an elephant

·         petting a burro

·         feeding animals

·         climbing a steep wooden bridge.

The investigators recorded the number of boys and girls engaging in these "risky" behaviors. They found that boys engaged in risk-taking behaviors more frequently than girls.

Sociology

Being Sane in Insane Places

What is the impact of having a label (stigma) attached to one's self. How does this label influence others' perceptions of and responses to the stigmatized person?

In this case the label was a psychiatric one: schizophrenia.

Dr. Rosenhan had himself and eight other volunteers admitted to mental hospitals throughout the United States by faking symptoms of schizophrenia. He chose this real life setting as the best way to test the impact of a label.

Once admitted, the pseudo-patients immediately began behaving "normal," following orders, talking to others, and indicating that they no longer experienced any of the symptoms that brought them to the hospital.

Despite the normal behavior, none of the patients were recognized as a "sane" person. Their stays ranged from 7-52 days with an average stay of 19 days.

Normal behaviors were interpreted to fit the label. For instance, the pseudo-patients took extensive notes while they were on the wards and in the open.

Nursing records indicated that this note-taking behavior was seen as "an aspect of their pathological behavior!" Rosenhan declared that we couldn’t tell the sane from the insane in psychiatric hospitals.

Bumper Sticker and the Cops

Did Los Angeles Police give tickets more often to cars bearing Black Panther bumper stickers?

This naturalistic observation took place in Los Angeles, California. The study was undertaken as a result of professor Heussenstamm's discussion with a number of students who were members of the Black Panthers and who were complaining about harassment from law enforcement officers. It turned out that all of these students had Black Panther bumper stickers on their cars.

To test the impact of these stickers a sample of 15 students (5 Blacks, 5 Whites, and 5 Mexican-Americans) agreed to place these bumper stickers on their cars. Each group included 3 males and 2 females, all had exemplary driving records, all cars were inspected to ensure no defective equipment, and each student pledged to do nothing to attract the attention of law enforcement officers and drove their normal daily routes.

The results? Over a 17 day period, 33 citations were issued to the 15 subjects. Reasons for citations included: "driving too slowly," "making unsafe lane changes," "following too closely," etc. The citations were equally distributed by race, and by sex. Because of the cost and potential damage to the driving reputations of the subjects, the study was called off after 17 days.

Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction, 2003