A psychologist wanted to investigate personal space defense mechanisms in public study spaces. They conducted a naturalistic observation in a busy university library during exam season. An actor sat immediately adjacent to a student studying alone at a large communal desk, despite there being numerous completely empty desks nearby. The psychologist sat a few desks away and recorded the non-verbal reactions and the time elapsed before the student relocated.
Outline two ways in which the naturalistic observation method used in this study could affect the validity of the data collected.
644 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Research methods and techniques. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.