Conducting Observational Research

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Back to Characteristics of Qualitative Observational Research

Qualitative observational research is naturalistic because it studies a group in its natural setting. Patton explains, "Naturalistic inquiry is thus contrasted to experimental research where the investigator attempts to completely control the condition of the study" (p. 42). For example, if you wanted to study college students who were speakers of BEV, you would not conduct your research in a predominantly Caucasian college or university.