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Participant Observation Procedures in Marital and Family Assessment

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Family Interaction and Psychopathology

Part of the book series: Applied Clinical Psychology ((NSSB))

Abstract

The term participant observation, in its general usage, refers to assessment procedures in which the observer is clearly visible to the person being observed (Wiggins, 1973). The observer may maintain a passive, noninteractive role or may directly interact with the person being observed. In the marital and family literature, that definition covers three types of observation procedures. First, there have been direct observations by noninteractive and uninvolved trained coders, that is, objective observations by a “blend-into-the-woodwork” type of observer (e.g., Patterson, 1982). Second, there are observations that family members make of one another during the natural course of daily interactions. Techniques that record these observations also have been referred to as quasi-observational or quasi-behavioral (Weiss & Margolin, 1986), because the observer’s objectivity is affected by the extensive and intensive interaction that has occurred and continues to occur between himself or herself and the person being observed. Third are observations in which the person doing the reporting is also the target of the observation (or is one of several targets). This type of observation is an example of self-monitoring.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University Park, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-1061, USA

    Gayla Margolin

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  1. Gayla Margolin
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  1. University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

    Theodore Jacob

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© 1987 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Margolin, G. (1987). Participant Observation Procedures in Marital and Family Assessment. In: Jacob, T. (eds) Family Interaction and Psychopathology. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0840-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0840-7_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

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