THE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF SOCIAL INIERACIIONS

Abstract

The thesis of this paper is that observatioral methodology and the statistical aralysis of behavioral sequerces may make importart contributiors to 11w extart metbods of behavior analysis, and particularly ir the aralysis of social irteractions ir the ratural envirormert. lo exemplify this tbesis, a behavioral dependencias analysis ard a temporal structure analysis were applied to behavioral studies of cbildrer and motherchild interactions. The results suggest tbat effective social contingencias should be reconsiderad ir terms of dependencias between instrumental behavior and social reinforcement, considerad asan adjusting system with regard to time invested for each participant. These results are discussed ir the context of the analysis of behavior as it is applied to research in natural environments.