Structured Observation

Structuring the Situation

As a methodological tool, structured observation is quite flexible. Guided by the researcher’s aims, structured observations can be conducted (a) with individuals, dyads, or groups; (b) in the participants’ natural environment (home, school) or in the laboratory; and (c) over brief (minutes) or enduring (hours) spans of time. How the researcher structures the situation—that is, what participants are asked to do or talk about—should directly reflect the research aims. If the aim is to understand how romantic partners resolve conflict, for instance, couples may be asked to choose and discuss an issue on which they disagree. If the aim is to understand partners’ provision of emotional support, the researcher may set up a situation in which one partner is presented with a stressor while the other partner is present.

Structured observation also varies in the degree of structure or control imposed by the researcher. Observations low in structure may take place in the participants’ natural environment and involve limited or open-ended instructions. A researcher interested in sibling conflict, for instance, may ask siblings to play together for 10 minutes with one desirable toy in a designated room in the siblings’ home. This semistructured observation differs from naturalistic observations in which the researcher observes spontaneous instances of sibling conflict as the family goes about their everyday routine. Observations high in structure typically take place in the laboratory, which provides greater control over extraneous factors (e.g., physical space, distractions, other individuals present) than is possible during observations in natural environments and involve specific instructions to one or more of the participants and/or the use of confederates (i.e., actors who participate in the study, unbeknownst to the participants). The still face paradigm is an example of a highly structured observational procedure, in which the infant is observed during interaction with an adult, typically the mother, in three 2-minute consecutive episodes: face-to-face play in which the adult and infant interact while the infant is seated in a car seat, still face episode in which the adult looks neutrally at the infant but ceases all verbal and nonverbal interaction, and reunion episode in which the adult resumes interaction with the infant. This standardized procedure has been used in numerous studies to reliably elicit and observe young infants’ affective reactivity and regulatory processes.

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