Title: 
Headings: 

Content: Observational studiesare investigations where the researcher observes a situation and records what happens but does not manipulate an independent variable. Observational studies therefore tend to be high in ecological validity as there is no intervention and if the observer remains undetected the method avoids problems with demand characteristics. A main strength of observational studies is that they get to see how participants actually behave rather than what they say they do. A further strength of observational studies is that they offer ways of studying behaviour when there are ethical problems with manipulating variables. For example there will be less ethical issues with carry out a naturalistic observation of school children compared to carrying out experiments on school children. Observational studies are also useful as a starting point in research. For example the researchers may be investigating a new area of research in order to produce hypotheses for future investigations such as experiments. On the other hand observational studies are difficult to replicate. Observations do not provide information about what participants are thinking or feeling. There is little or no control of extraneous variables in observational studies therefore we can not make cause and effect statements.