Unfortunately, few clients can provide accurate information about these
variables from memory. Therefore, therapists often ask clients to keep records
of when and where they engage in certain behaviors. Clients are sometimes sur-
prised by what they find. For example, people trying to watch their weight may
discover that they eat more when they ’re alone, when watching television, or
after they ’ve had a drink. An interesting benefit of the self-monitoring method
is that watching your own behavior can be therapeutic in itself. Clients forced
to pay attention to their eating or smoking sometimes show improvement even
before the treatment is started (Mahoney & Arnkoff, 1979). Self-monitoring is
also used to assess progress throughout the treatment period. One problem thatsometimes surfaces when relying on self-monitoring is the client ’s honesty.
Clients may not want to admit that they increased their smoking or lost theirtemper several times in one week. Therapists who suspect a problem may wantto use other assessment methods, such as the one discussed next.
Observation by Others
Some clients are unwilling or simply unable to provide accurate information
about themselves. For example, self-monitoring is probably inappropriate
with children or those with severe psychological disorders. In these cases, itmay be possible to rely on other people to make the observations. Parents
and teachers can often record the frequency of a child ’s problem behaviors.
A teacher might be asked to record each time she punishes a child for acting
Psychologists working with children often use direct observation. This procedure allows
them to assess how a child plays alone, how parents interact with their child, or howwell a child interacts with other children. Many psychologists have also discovered thevalue of videotaping behavior samples for more extensive observation and coding later.Photo by Marlene SomsakAssessment: Behavior Observation Methods 367