Time sampling in studies of social behavior: a critical review of techniques and results with research suggestions.

Braukmann

J of App Behav Analysis

et al. 1976

189

Three reliably measured components of conversation-questioning, providing positive feedback, and proportion of time spent talking-were identified and validated as to their social importance. The social validity of the three conversational behaviors was established with five female university students and five female junior-high students. Each was videotaped in conversations with previously unknown adults. The conversational ability of each girl was evaluated by a group of 13 adult judges who viewed each tape and rated each conversant "poor" to "excellent" on a seven-point rating scale. The average ratings of the girls correlated at r = 0.85 with the specified behavioral measures. These procedures were replicated with additional subjects and judges and yielded a correlation of r = 0.84. The high correlations between ratings and the objective measures suggested that the specified conversational behaviors were socially important aspects of conversational ability. Employing a multiple-baseline design across the behaviors of asking questions and providing positive feedback, an attempt was made to train four girls who used these behaviors minimally to engage in the behaviors in conversations with adults. Adult judges were again employed to rate randomly selected samples of the girls' skills in pre-and posttraining conversations. The average ratings of the girls before training were lower than both the university girls and the junior high-school girls. After training, the girls' conversational abilities were rated substantially higher than those of their junior high-school peers. These rating data validated the benefits of the training and the social importance of the behavioral components of questions and feedback in conversation. The authors suggest that it may be necessary for traditional behavior analysis measurement systems to be supplemented by social-validation procedures in order to establish the relationship between "objectively" measured behaviors and complex classes of behavior of interest to society.

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

THE SOCIAL VALIDATION AND TRAINING OF CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS¹

Braukmann

J of App Behav Analysis

et al. 1976

189

J of App Behav Analysis

“…Thus, one of the earliest demands on applied researchers in behavior analysis was for accurate and reliable description and observation of the dependent variable (e.g., Heyns & Lippitt, 1954). The classic literature of observational technology (e.g., Arrington, 1943;Bijou, Peterson, & Ault, 1968;Rosenthal & Rosnow, 1969;Webb, Campbell, Schwartz, & Sechrist, 1966;Weick, 1968) was joined in later years by a new literature, concerned with problems of dependent variable observation such as observer reactivity (e.g., Hanley, 1970;Romanczyk, Kent, Diament, & O'Leary, 1973), observer bias (e.g., McNamara & MacDonough, 1972; O'Leary, Kent, & Kanowitz, 1975), observer drift (e.g., Reid, 1970), observational complexity (e.g., Kazdin, 1977a) and 477 1982, 15) [477][478][479][480][481][482][483][484][485][486][487][488][489][490][491][492] NUMBER 4 (WINTER 1982) various sources of inflation of observer reliability estimates (e.g., Hartmann, 1977). The number of articles in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) that contain reliability estimates of the dependent variable have steadily increased in recent years (Hayes, Rincover, & Solnick, 1980).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Integrity of Independent Variables in Behavior Analysis

Peterson

Homer

Wonderlich

1982

391

321

Establishing a functional relationship between the independent and the dependent variable is the primary focus of applied behavior analysis. Accurate and reliable description and observation of both the independent and dependent variables are necessary to achieve this goal. Although considerable attention has been focused on ensuring the integrity of the dependent variable in the operant literature, similar effort has not been directed at ensuring the integrity of the independent variable. Inaccurate descriptions of the application of the independent variable may threaten the reliability and validity of operant research data. A survey of articles in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis demonstrated that the majority of articles published do not use any assessment of the actual occurrence of the independent variable and a sizable minority do not provide operational definitions of the independent variable. The feasibility and utility of ensuring the integrity of the independent variable is described.

“…These ecologically valid descriptive data complement more widely used behavior rating scales to evaluate the impact of intervention programming on children's aggressive behavior. While observation data make an undeniable contribution to evaluation findings, particularly for programs of behavior change, the validity and reliability of observation data have been debated for more than half a century (Arrington, 1943;Johnson and Bolstad, 1973). This paper discusses challenges encountered in a multisite, multimethod evaluation of an intervention program to reduce aggressive behavior in elementary schools.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is watching the watchers? The challenge of observing peer interactions on elementary school playgrounds

Hudley

2006

New Drctns Evaluation

Cynthia HudleyDirect observation in natural settings has been recognized for nearly a century (Thomas, 1929) as an important methodology to capture the nuances of children' s behavior for research, clinical assessment, and program evaluation. These ecologically valid descriptive data complement more widely used behavior rating scales to evaluate the impact of intervention programming on children's aggressive behavior. While observation data make an undeniable contribution to evaluation findings, particularly for programs of behavior change, the validity and reliability of observation data have been debated for more than half a century (Arrington, 1943;Johnson and Bolstad, 1973). This paper discusses challenges encountered in a multisite, multimethod evaluation of an intervention program to reduce aggressive behavior in elementary schools. The evaluation design incorporated multiple sources of data, including playground observations. The observation data were difficult to collect and challenging to integrate into the full complement of evaluation findings. After briefly reviewing the literature on the costs and benefits of observation data that guided the decision to include an observation component in the evaluation design, the chapter will describe the evaluation project, a series of apparently unique, previously unreported difficulties in implementing the observation component, and the lessons learned from those difficulties.