Twenty-seven severely mentally retarded patients, all of whom manifested body-rocking in their normal ward environments, were systematically observed. (SBH)

"Five roles are considered by which systematic, quantified field research can augment controlled laboratory experimentation in terms of increasing the validity of laboratory studies." Advocates that comparative psychologists should "take more initiative in designing, executing, and interpreting our experiments with regard to the natural history of…

The acquisition of aggressive responses may likely be a function of the environment's copious provision of imitative models. (Author)

Behavioral observations have the advantages of being direct, tangible, and informative as to the contextual determinants of behavior. Considerable evidence exists that a three-dimensional structure gives meaning to many child behaviors in a variety of life settings. Three bipolar dimensions constitute this framework: introversion vs. extroversion,…

The effects of observational purpose are thought to impact on such diverse processes as categorization, behavior perception, trait ascription, and memory. The role of observational purpose in the categorization of behavior was explored to determine whether differences between trait and goal concepts affect certain information-processing…

This study assesses the effect of visual versus audio observation/recording on both client and therapist verbal and non-verbal behavior in ongoing therapy. Three co-led, therapy groups were studied over six weekly sessions under counterbalanced observation conditions. Measures of verbal behavior, verbal productivity, and non-verbal behavior were…

Three studies were conducted in an initial attempt to investigate the psychological importance of trivial everyday frustrations encountered by preschool children. Study 1 analyzed the frequency and quality of experiences that could be interpreted as interfering in some way with children's natural pursuit of their desires. In a nursery school…

This paper presents a research method derived from the functional analysis of behavior currently common among operant behavior therapists. Naturalistic observation, the method used, encompasses behavioral-level description of events, systematic observation and recording by means of codes, assessment of inter-judge reliability, as well as targeting…

There is a growing need for instrumentation which can enable us to observe and compute phenomena that take place in time. Although problems of observation, computation, interpretation and categorization vary from field to field and from problem to problem, it is possible to design an instrument for use in any situation where time-variables have to…

In summarizing the results of naturalistic observations of children, it is often useful to have a reading of the child's overall deviance and the responses of social agents to these deviant behaviors. Traditionally, investigators have categorized a series of child behaviors as deviant based solely on their own assumptions with no empirical basis…

This is the final report of a research project. The goal of the project was to record a large collection of mathematical performances by students and to develop a system for analyzing these performances. The subjects observed included students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 and three adult groups. Four specific results are reported: (1) a large…

To identify parameters of teacher effectiveness, this study uses an ecological approach. Since setting, which includes not only physical surroundings but also the dynamic of activity, has a coercive effect on behavior, a teacher's ability to establish appropriate settings should be an accurate measure of effectiveness. Five head teachers in a…