Which term refers to the process of gathering information via watching phenomena rather than manipulating them?

• A. Data
• B. Observation
• C. Hypothesis
• D. Experimentation

Answer: (B)

Observation is the process of gathering information by watching phenomena as they occur, without manipulating the system. This approach involves noticing what happens, when it happens, and under what conditions, often with careful recording or measurement, but without trying to change the outcome. It’s the foundation for describing how things behave in their natural state. In contrast, experimentation requires deliberately altering one variable to see how another responds, which is a different way of probing causality. Data are the results collected from what you observe (and sometimes from experiments), while a hypothesis is a proposed explanation that you would test with further observation and/or experimentation. So, watching and recording what happens is observation.