observing and recording behaviour Flashcards
in a behaviour assessment, what are the three steps to measure the baseline of a target behaviour?
- determine if treatment is necessary
- provide information to choose the best treatment
- determine if treatment is successful
what is indirect assessment?
tries to measure target behaviour with interviews, questionnaires, and/or rating scales
- may rely on other people’s testimony
- requires recall of an individual’s behaviour
ex. at the end of the week, how often this this action occur
what are some concerns with indirect assessment?
- incomplete
- unreliable
- inaccurate
- biased
what is a direct assessment?
target behaviour is measured as it occurs
- can be difficult to always measure once something happens
who can measure the behaviour as it occurs in direct assessment?
can be a person, camera, or another recording device (app)
can direct assessment be done through self-monitoring?
yes! client can be trained to report own behaviour
when is self-monitoring useful?
- independent observers are not available
- target behaviour is infrequent
- target behaviour does not occur in the presence of other people
what are the steps to direct assessment: recording a behaviour (what should we pay attention and watch for
- define the target behaviour
- identify who, when and where to record
- choose a recording method (what to record)
- choose a recording instrument (how to record)
- consider the reactivity of the recording
- interobserver agreement assessment
what is an operational definition of target behaviour?
definition that specifies the operation by which a term will be measure
- this is what i’m interested in, this is my behaviour, and this is how i am going to measure it
how do we make a target behaviour precise?
- tell people what they are watching for
- people could replicate
- transparent
how do we make a target behaviour quantitative?
- give it a number if we can
how do we make a target behaviour objective/unambiguous?
how do we make a target behaviour not reference internal states, feelings or motivation
- if we add something more abstract by adding emotions, we are adding extra complexity
- more abstract, the harder it is to include a model
how do we make a target behaviour practical?
- reasonable measure that works for you and your situation
how do we make a target behaviour important/significant?
- can have better or worse measures based on your environment
who is the individual recording the study?
the observer
what is an independent observer?
someone besides the person exhibiting target behaviour
what is an observational period?
when the target behaviour is recorded
what will timing depend on?
when the behaviour occurs
when the observer is available
- having phone in pocket turn on and off is very reliable
- a teacher observing behaviour can be hard during recess
- behaviour within a class, much easier
- practical limitations !!!
(this can shift depending on what we are trying to observe)
where are the two setting that a behaviour can occur / be observed?
natural or analogue settings
what is a natural setting?
- places in which the target behaviour occurs typically
- a more representative sample of target behaviour
what is an analogue setting?
- lab or clinical
- out of natural environment
- out of daily routine
- a more controlled environment (easy to manipulate variables that influence behaviour)
what are the possible recording methods?
frequency, duration, intensity, and latency
what is frequency
number of times behaviour occurs in observation period
- six times today they took a deep breath
what is duration
- total amount of time occupied by the behaviour
- how long they take the deep breath
what is intensity
- amount of force, energy or exertion involved
- child throwing a temper tantrum (screaming, flailing on floor, volume in decibels of how loud the scream was
what is latency
- time from some stimulus/event to the onset of behaviour
- throwing a hand up and the teacher hasn’t called on them yet, how long is it before the child starts to lash out
do recording methods have limited or many choices?
many!
what are some examples of the choices we have to make when recording behaviour?
- natural or analogue
- indirect or direct
- structured or unstructured observation
- continuous (8 hours straight) vs sample (30 seconds every couple hours until we have 100 samples) recording
- frequency vs duration vs intensity
what are some potential recording equipment items?
paper and pencil
laptop
stopwatch
small video cameras
phone
apps
google home or amazon alexa
recordings of a particular behaviour should be..?
Immediate!
what is reactivity?
process of recording behaviour may cause behaviour to change based on different environments/settings
how can reactivity be problematic even before treatment?
- we often begin with baselines for most treatment methods
- to get a baseline, we still need to record someone’s behaviour, already causing them to adjust
- hard to study humans and unsure you are getting an unbiased action
what are some ways we are able to reduce reactivity?
- wait until the person being observed becomes accustomed to the observer
- use a one-way observation window or participant observer (a person who is usually in the setting where target behaviour occurs)
- self-monitoring may lead to behaviour changes (can be used as treatment)
why can measuring reactivity be difficult?
we need informed consent!
what is the interobserver agreement (IOA)?
is a behaviour being recorded consistently?
how do you evaluate an IOA?
- two people independently observe and record the same target behaviour during the same observation period
- compare recordings of two observers
- calculate percentage or agreement
if more than one person is recording a behaviour, what do we need to make sure of?
all observers are recording in the same way
if interjudge reliability is high…
that means that our reports are all in agreement and we are all recording behaviour according to the rules
