Time-sampling studies of child behavior.

Abstract

v 24 children. Chapters VI and VII are concerned with an evaluation of the behavior samples from the standpoint of the reliability of the original records and the representativeness of the behavior samples. The concluding chapter contains a general summary of the program.Many individuals have contributed to the successful completion of this program. I am especially indebted to the immediate sponsors of the investigation-to Professor Mark A. May, Director of the Institute of Human Relations, for facilitating access to the New Haven schools, for helpful suggestions at various points and for criticism of the manuscript, and to Professor Thomas, for the hypothesis and the conceptual background of the research, for constant guidance and constructive criticism and, above all, for the scientific ideal which her own work represents. To Professor Edwin B. Wilson of the Harvard University School of Public Health, who contributed much time and the wisdom of his broad experience to exploration of the sampling problems, I am deeply indebted for invaluable assistance in the statistical treatment of the data.The generous cooperation of the following individuals associated with the New Haven public schools is acknowledged with grateful appreciation:

Frequency, complexity, and clarity as covariates of observer reliability

“…The most reasonable hypothesis is that as the number of different discriminations required of an observer increase so do the errors of detection (Arrington, 1939;Mash & McElwee, 1974). A similar phenomenon is reported in the self-monitoring literature where accuracy decreases when concurrent tasks are required of the person self-monitoring (Epstein, Webster, & Miller, 1975;Epstein, Miller, & Webster, 1976;House & Kinscherf, 1978).…”

“…Changes over time in observational records may not be viewed as error at all but rather as reflecting real variability in subject behavior (Arrington, 1939;O'Neill & Alexander, 1971 ;Jones, 1972). Reliability in the observational litature has referred to the adequacy with which an observer codes the observed actions in terms of the category system used.…”

“…As pointed out by Johnson and Bolstad (1973), O'Leary and , and others, interobserver agreement is a necessary but not sufficient condition for accuracy (two observers can agree in incorrectly coding a sequence of behavior). Still, in most of the situations in which observational measures are of greatest value there is little or no opportunity to gain the information that would allow for direct assessment of accuracy, and interobserver agreement is a necessary indirect measure (Arrington, 1939).…”

Behavior modification and the brat syndrome.

“…Videotaped interaction data. The primary method of data reduction for the interaction sessions was the time sampling technique (Arrington, 1939;Koch, 1948). Behavior categories of interest were delineated and each interaction session was divided into 30-second samples.…”

Chapter V: Observational Methods of Research

“…Arrington (8) published a comprehensive review of methodological and behavioral findings using the time sampling technic. This is a method of observing the behavior of individuals or groups under ordinary conditions of everyday life in which observations are made in a series of short time periods so distributed as to afford a representative sampling of the behavior under observation.…”