Title: Descriptive Observation and Experiment
Headings: Descriptive Observation and Experiment
Descriptive Observation and Experiment
Non-systematic Observation
Systematic Observation
Degree of Manipulation
Indirect Methods of Recording an Activity

Content: Descriptive observation means that you do not wish to modify the activity in any way, you just want to register it such as it would take place without your presence. An activity can interest a researcher because all professions and all industrial production are essentially chains of activities. Besides, the product itself can be a process of activities, such as a computer program, course of education, drama or other presentation on stage or on TV. Also when the product is a static object with no action of its own, its use is an activity that you perhaps will want to study in its empirical setting. There are many activities that can be difficult or expensive to study especially in their original setting "in the field", and before starting an empirical project it can be advisable to spend a minute in considering whether the information that you need could be reachable without direct empirical operations. Such methods might include: Finding the information in already existing texts and literature,
Interrogating people that know about the activity,
Indirect or "unobtrusive" study where you will not observe the activity itself but events or traces that the activity brings about, such as erosion or consumption of energy. If these approaches, however, seem fruitless and you have concluded that you have to gather your data with empirical observation, one of the first questions to resolve is the extent of your empirical material. There are two decisions that you have to make: Demarcate the study by asking yourself which is the set or the entire multitude of those cases of activity where you want to say that your future findings are true?