Naturalistic observation, sometimes referred to as fieldwork, is a research methodology in numerous fields of science including ethology, anthropology, linguistics, the social sciences, and psychology, in which data are collected as they occur in nature, without any manipulation by the observer. Examples range from watching an animal's eating patterns in the forest to observing the behavior of students in a school setting. During naturalistic observation, researchers take great care using unobtrusive methods to avoid interfering with the behavior they are observing. Naturalistic observation contrasts with analog observation in an artificial setting that is designed to be an analog of the natural situation, constrained so as to eliminate or control for effects of any variables other than those of interest. There is similarity to observational studies in which the independent variable of interest cannot be experimentally controlled for ethical or logistical reasons.
Naturalistic observation has both advantages and disadvantages as a research methodology. Observations are more credible because the behavior occurs in a real, typical scenario as opposed to an artificial one generated within a lab. Behavior that could never occur in controlled laboratory environment can lead to new insights. Naturalistic observation also allows for study of events that are deemed unethical to study experimentally, such as the impact of high school shootings on students attending the high school. However, because extraneous variables cannot be controlled as in a laboratory, it is difficult to replicate findings and demonstrate their reliability. In particular, if subjects know they are being observed they may behave differently than otherwise. It may be difficult to generalize findings of naturalistic studies beyond the observed situations.
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Participant observation is one type of data collection method by practitioner-scholars typically used in qualitative research and ethnography. This type of methodology is employed in many disciplines, particularly anthropology (incl. cultural anthropology and European ethnology), sociology (incl. sociology of culture and cultural criminology), communication studies, human geography, and social psychology.
Psychology is the study of mind and behavior in humans and non-humans. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between the natural and social sciences. Psychologists seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As social scientists, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.
Narrow scrape-off layer (SOL) heat flux channel widths (λq) are seen on many tokamaks, both in inner-wall limited (IWL) and diverted discharges. These observations have important consequences for ITER and reactors, impacting the design of inner limiter til ...