例如，如果研究人员希望在圣诞节假期之前的几周内研究购物者的行为，那么在实验室中建立商店是不切实际的。 另外，即使研究人员这样做了，也不太可能从参与者那里获得与在现实世界中的商店购物相同的反应。 自然主义观察提供了观察购物者行为的机会，并基于研究人员对情况的观察，有可能针对特定的假设或研究途径产生新的想法。 该方法要求研究人员将自己沉浸在所研究的环境中。 这通常涉及记录大量现场笔记。
For example, if researchers want to study the behavior of shoppers in the weeks before the Christmas holiday, it would be impractical to set up a store in a lab. In addition, even if researchers do this, it is unlikely that they will get the same response from the participants as they would in a real-world store shopping. Naturalistic observation provides an opportunity to observe the behavior of shoppers, and based on researchers’ observations of the situation, it is possible to generate new ideas for specific hypotheses or research approaches. This method requires researchers to immerse themselves in the environment they are studying. This usually involves taking a lot of field notes.