A psychologist conducts a covert participant observation to investigate the social dynamics and coping mechanisms within a closed online support group for extreme anxiety.
Which of the following is a primary limitation of using this specific research design?
It eliminates researcher bias because the observer remains a completely objective, detached, and non-participating outsider.
It presents major ethical challenges, particularly regarding the lack of informed consent and the difficulty in offering participants a practical right to withdraw.
It is highly susceptible to the Hawthorne effect because participants are fully aware of the researcher's presence and hypotheses.
It suffers from low ecological validity because the researcher must actively manipulate independent variables in a controlled setting.
