Abstract
When using behavioral-observation methods for coding video footage, it is unknown how much time of an interaction needs to be coded to gain results that are representative for the behavior of interest. The current study examined this problem using the INTAKT, a standardized observational measure for assessing the quality of mother-child interactions. Results from coding only 10 min of each video (i.e., thin slices) were compared with results from coding the remaining parts (averaging about 40 min) of the interaction. Inter-rater agreement for the short versions taken from the beginning or the middle, but not the end of the interactions indicated satisfactory observer accuracy. Coding results did not differ between short and long video sequences, when sequences were taken from the middle of the interactions. Importantly, characteristic differences between different interactive situations were equally well represented in the short and long video sequences. Therefore, our results show that coding only 10 min of an interaction is as reliable and valid as coding full-length videos, if those short sequences are taken from the middle of an interaction. Our findings support the idea that for every method, it is necessary to individually determine the window duration that is long enough to gain results that are reliable and valid.
Highlights
The behavioral observation of interactions between mothers and their children can be an important part of the psychological assessment process
When developing the behavioral-observation method INTAKT (Hirschmann et al 2011; an instrument for assessing the quality of mother-child interactions; see below), the original approach was to code the full-length videos. Because this is very time-consuming, the current study aims at determining whether coding thin slices of mother-child interactions yields results that are as reliable and valid as assessments based on full-length video observations
Regarding Feedback, time-unit kappas with tolerance showed no significant difference between full-length videos and a shortened sequence taken from the beginning of each situation
Summary
The behavioral observation of interactions between mothers and their children can be an important part of the psychological assessment process. A meta-analysis by Ambady and Rosenthal (1992) suggests that objective outcomes can be predicted from short behavioral observations To refer to those short observations, they coined the term Bthin slices^. They investigated studies from the areas of clinical and social psychology that had used slices of no more than five minutes of behavior and found an effect size for the accuracy of predictions of r = .39. They argued that other studies that did not use behavioral observation but had used different methods (e.g., self-reports, ratings) to predict similar criterion variables found similar effect sizes. They did not find or use any studies that directly compared results from coding longer segments with coding shorter segments of the same situation
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