ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the question of behavior sampling. The mechanical and electronic aids available for observing and recording behavior rapidly become obsolete with the current advances in computer technologies. The selection of target behaviors for observation in applied or clinical situations can be viewed as a continuous process. A presenting problem is converted into a research question. The first approach is to concentrate on a single most salient behavior as the target of observation. More recent researchers tend to favor a second approach that suggests that an interrelated 'constellation' of behaviors should be observed simultaneously. For quantitative observations of behavior, it is not sufficient to identify the target behaviors. There are several established behavioral observation coding systems for a variety of types of target behaviors. For single-subject, multiple-behavior observations, direct conversions of the multiple-subject, single-behavior recording methods can be used.
