TY - JOUR
T1 - How Much Observational Data is Enough? An Empirical Test using Marital Interaction Coding
AU - Heyman, Richard E.
AU - Chaudhry, Bushra R.
AU - Treboux, Dominique
AU - Crowell, Judith
AU - Lord, Chiyoko
AU - Vivian, Dina
AU - Waters, Everett B.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Grants R01MH44935, R01MH57779, and R29MH44665 from the National Institutes of Mental Health. Address correspondence to Richard E. Heyman, Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500; e-mail: [email protected].
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Using three different samples of couples (clinic, nondistressed community, and engaged), we found that 15 minutes was sufficient to witness enough behavior to make reliable (i.e., internally consistent) estimations of most Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (Heyman & Vivian, 1993) code frequencies. Ten minutes is sufficient for many codes of interest. The ease in which "how much time is necessary" calculations can be made should entice behavioral investigators from a variety of content areas to publish such figures. By empirically investigating a factor that in most fields becomes reified through convention, investigators can conduct observational research that is both maximally efficient and maximally scientifically defensible.
AB - Using three different samples of couples (clinic, nondistressed community, and engaged), we found that 15 minutes was sufficient to witness enough behavior to make reliable (i.e., internally consistent) estimations of most Rapid Marital Interaction Coding System (Heyman & Vivian, 1993) code frequencies. Ten minutes is sufficient for many codes of interest. The ease in which "how much time is necessary" calculations can be made should entice behavioral investigators from a variety of content areas to publish such figures. By empirically investigating a factor that in most fields becomes reified through convention, investigators can conduct observational research that is both maximally efficient and maximally scientifically defensible.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0005-7894(01)80047-2
DO - 10.1016/S0005-7894(01)80047-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 16733528
AN - SCOPUS:0041331460
SN - 0005-7894
VL - 32
SP - 107
EP - 122
JO - Behavior Therapy
JF - Behavior Therapy
IS - 1
ER -