Observational Methods

Naturalistic and Analogue Behavioral Observation

Behavioral observation involves any situation in which an assessor (e.g., a researcher or clinician) systematically watches how people act. Although assessors may also see what effect the situation has on the participants' thinking, feeling, or physiological reactions, the key focus is on observable action.

Behavioral observation comprises two forms. Naturalistic observation involves the measuring of behavior in its typical context without artificial constraints by the observer.

The prefix “analogue” in analogue behavioral observation (ABO) is derived from the same root as “analogy”; an analogue is like something else. In this case, the analogue situation is like a real-life situation, one that is set up by the observer to see more intriguing things than would happen naturally. Thus, in more scientific terms, ABO can be defined as a situation designed by, manipulated by, or constrained by an assessor that elicits a measured behavior of interest. Observed behaviors can be either verbal or nonverbal (e.g., overt actions, observable facial reactions, verbalized attributions). This entry focuses more heavily on ABO, both because ABO is by far the predominant form of observation used in family studies and because it involves slightly more decisions.

Studies of couples' communication are a prime example of ABOs in the study of human relationships, with hundreds of such studies in the published literature. In a typical study, psychologists bring a couple into the lab, give each of them a questionnaire (or interview) to find out what the biggest areas of conflict are (e.g., she would like him to spend more time with the children). The observer then brings them into a room (equipped with cameras and microphones) and asks them to discuss the problem and try to resolve it as they might at home. They are then left alone for 10 to 15 minutes as the video records. This process is often repeated for additional conflicts.

Researchers structure conversations in this way because they have a theory that conflict is important; observers sets up the situation so that there is a high probability that it will happen while the video is recording. The likelihood that a conflict would occur if the observer watched any random 15-minute segment of the couple's at-home behavior is low. In fact, one of the originators of the [Page 1172]conflict-oriented ABO method, psychologist John Gottman, set up a wired apartment in Seattle and had couples stay for 24 hours. Unlike his other studies that tested theories about how couples handle conflict, Gottman saw little conflict. There was so little that he and his colleagues had to come up with a different set of behaviors to study, for example how one partner would try to get the other's attention and whether these attempts worked.

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