Instructions
For each week of Section 2, you will have the opportunity to review a scenario and apply the method and critique the process.

This week, you will explore the naturalistic observation process as well as areas of trustworthiness. Remember, trustworthiness must be considered for any qualitative/non-experimental design.

You are invited to be creative with the scenarios in so far as how they relate to the method of the given week and the questions posed for evaluation.

Here is the scenario for this week:
You are a research psychologist and have initiated a research study to assess how couples relate and communicate with each other in both mundane and conflict situations. For this study, you have opted to create a natural “home” setting at the research laboratory.

In approach to this scenario, prepare a brief paper that evaluates the following:
Explain how you might design the “home” setting. What considerations would you make in developing the environment? Be sure to explain and support your answer.

Determine if this is a natural or contrived research setting. Be sure to explain and support your answer.

Determine how you might operationalize observations. Be sure to explain and support your answer. *Hint: Refer to behavioral categories and ways in which observations may be quantified.

Explain how you might design the setting to facilitate unobtrusive observations.

Interpret how observations could potentially be intrusive in this study. Explain the role intrusiveness would have on the setting and potential results.