Guidelines for designing and conducting a study that applies observational methodology

Abstract

Observational studies that use a combination of complementary methods can providekey insights into everyday behavior in natural settings. Many elements of human behavior areperfectly perceivable ---and hence observable--- in a multitude of everyday activities and settings,ranging from low-intervention programs to interactive studies analyzing different aspects offamily life, social relations, performance in sport or at school, etc. Human behavior, however,also has elements that are only partially perceivable but that can be captured through indirectobservation and subsequent analysis of oral behavior or written text or graphics. In this article,we present a schematic overview of the main steps involved in an observational study.The aim is to provide authors interested in embarking on such a study with some practical insights andguidelines that we hope will provide them with the knowledge and motivation to delve furtherinto this field and ultimately design their own observational study.