PSYC 164

Assignment 1 Part A: Observing, Defining and Recording Behaviour

The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with natural observation – how to be discreet, how to take data, and how to start analyzing the antecedents (what came before) and consequences (what came after) of that behaviour. The second part will ask you to graph a set of given data and to determine what kind of research design was used and why. Part A: Instructions and Questions 1. Find someone to observe. This can be a stranger, family member, friend, dog, etc. Reminder that ethically we can not observe anyone in a situation where they might reasonably expect privacy. Try to be a discreet as possible to avoid reactivity. After generally watching them for a couple of minutes to get a sense of their range of behaviours in this context, choose 1 behaviour to observe. Define it specifically below (for example, “eating” is too general – I need to know exactly when you’ll be recording an instance of eating. You might say “When the person opens her mouth and places food inside, I will count that as one instance of “eating.” Definition of Behaviour you’ll be observing: _________________________________________ 2. For 3 minutes, observe the frequency of that behaviour. Each time the behaviour occurs, as described above, please tally below for a total three minute frequency count. Frequency Count: ___________________________________________________ Total ______ 3. Describe two physical impacts of that behaviour on the environment (be specific). Are there any social impacts? If so, can you identify one? Physical Impacts: 1. 2. Social Impacts?

4. Identify the antecedents and consequences for the behaviour (what came just before and what happened just after?) We’re looking for immediate triggers and consequences that are directly linked to the behaviour. Antecedent: Behaviour: Consequence: 5. What steps did you take to avoid reactivity? Were you successful? Steps to avoid reactivity: Successful? Part B: Graphing and Research Design Instructions for Part B: 1. Miss Demeanor felt that there was a lot of vandalism in her small town. So she carefully defined vandalism in terms of action, including broken street lights, graffiti (each image or word counts as one) or burned items (this was just part of her list). She took baseline data for one week and got the following data:

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Acts of Vandalism

7 5 4 6 7 6 7

She implemented a program that sought to reduce vandalism by changing reporting behaviour, lighting, and offering incentives to people in town for fixing, rather than vandalizing, the town. She implemented this program and then took data for another seven days. She recorded the following data:

Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Acts of Vandalism

1 2 1 0 1 0 0

Question 1: Using the graphing techniques you learned in class, for graphing behavioural data, to graph the data recorded by Miss Demeanor. Make sure to show all of the important elements of the behavioural graph. (I said graph waaaaay too much in that question).  Question 2: According to the two rules discussed in class, does this data have scientific value? Why or why not? Question 3: If Miss Demeanor wanted to show scientific value and publish the research, which research design would you suggest and why? ***Don’t stress if you can’t figure out how to graph this on the computer. Feel free to do it on paper, then take a picture of it and upload it with your assignment.  Let me know if you have any questions, okay?