INFANT OBSERVATION AS RESEARCH: CROSS‐DISCIPLINARY LINKS1

Abstract

Infant observation has long been an essential part of many clinical trainings, as well as a component of some academic courses in applied psychoanalysis, but its research potential is just beginning to be tapped. This paper reviews some of the literature on infant observation as a research method. This type of naturalistic observation is compared and contrasted with empirical research in the laboratory with regard to the results which may best be obtained by each method. Strategies for the retrieval of information from process recordings are discussed, and the importance of convergent findings from different lines of enquiry and of theoretical triangulation is considered. Observations illustrating language development are used as an example of the further dimension which naturalistic observations can contribute to formulations deriving from clinical practice and empirical laboratory research. It is argued that convergences with psychoanalytic theory and with formulations from other disciplines, such as literary criticism, strengthen the confidence which may be accorded to formulations deriving from infant observation.