Surprisingly, naturalistic observational research is difficult to do well. Methods have been
constructed to guide the researcher, especially the beginning researcher, in the collection of data
under naturalistic conditions. Most importantly for this method, the very presence of the
investigator, as well as the data recording techniques that are used, must remain unobtrusive; that
is, no characteristics of the observation itself should have any effect on the behavior of the
organism under study.
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