An Important Implication of Time Sampling in Observational Studies of Behavior

Time-sampling studies of child behavior.

“…Mimeographed forms provided space for recording: (1) the names in the order of observation; (2) the initial letter indicating the degree of participation, u-unoccupied, s-solitary, o-onlooker, p-parallel, a-associative, and c-cooperative; (3) the names of all other children in the group; (4) the number of children in the group; (5) a key letter indicating leadership behavior; (6) a T or a Q to indicate that the child under observation was talking or was quiet; (7) a brief description of the activity in which the child was engaged; (8) his remarks; and (9) duration of the activity estimated in terms of v-short time, m-most of the minute, e-entire minute. 18 Observations were made during the free play hour (9:30-10:30 A.M.), at least 60 one-minute records being obtained for 34 of the children.…”

“…In a situation as conducive to spontaneity of action as the nursery-school play period, it seemed likely that a child's interest in the material, as contrasted with the social, aspects of his environment, or vice versa, would be reflected in his choice of activity.4 If individuals could be distinguished in early childhood on the basis of consistent sociomaterial patterns by means of quantitative behavior indices derived from systematic observations of their undirected activities and if these individual patterns could be related to the pattern characteristic of normal development, it should be possible to detect undesirable behavior patterns at an early stage and to guide development into more desirable channels. 5 This general hypothesis presupposes (1) that individuals can be differentiated in terms of their overtly expressed interest (a) in manipulating the material components of their environment and (b) in exploring its social resources, as opposed to (c) withdrawal from active contact either with materials or with persons, (2) that techniques can be devised for recording the 3Freyd (21) attempted to differentiate the "personalities of the socially and the mechanically minded," " men whose primary interest is social and men whose primary interest is in machines," using students preparing for executive positions in industry and students of mechanical and commercial engineering to represent the latter group, life insurance sal esmen to represent the former. This common-sense concept of a dichotomy of interests and capacities is implicit in many of our vocational programs.…”

“…tional behavior is attributable, in part, to the considerable degree of success already achieved in defining norms of physical and mental development; in part, to exposure of the fallacy involved in assuming a relationship between a behavior pattern and a specific characteristic of the person manifesting the pattern without first determining the prevalence of the behavior in large populations of individuals not possessing the given characteristic. 5 It was important, in other words, to find out what constitutes normal behavior for most children of a given age, nationality, socio-economic group, culture, etc., before inferring causal relationships between the observed pattern of an individual and any of these factors.…”