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Three experiments that investigated variables related to the assessment and therapeutic functions of self-recording are reported. In Experiment 1, 20 college students in a classroom situation were differentially reinforced (successfully) either for increments in agreement between their self-recorded frequency of face touching and the frequencies reported by trained observers or for decrements in face touching. In Experiment 2, 21 college students in a classroom situation received varying levels of verbal feedback for the reliability of their self-recorded face touching, but these varying levels did not differentially affect reliability. In Experiment 3, the 16 college students who were motivated to stop smoking reported fewer cigarettes smoked during self-monitoring than the 20 nonmotivated students. These results are discussed in the context of variables that enhance the assessment and therapeutic functions of self-monitoring.

Several therapeutic strategies in behavior modification require subjects to selfobserve and to self-record their own behavior. Self-recording appears to be reactive, with the phenomenon having two components: actual changes in behavior as a function of self-recording and possible unreliability of selfobservers. The present study was undertaken to differentially examine the reactivity and reliability of self-observations; a second purpose was to assess the role of awareness of reliability estimates in the reliability of self-observation. Unobtrusive independent observers recorded face-touching behaviors of college students in a classroom setting throughout baseline, aware and unaware (of reliability estimates) self-recording conditions and return-to-baseline condition. Subjects simultaneously self-recorded face touching during the middle two conditions. Face touching, as measured by the independent observers, was significantly affected by self-recording, indicating that it is a reactive procedure. The reliability between independent observers and self-observers decreased differentially when the self-recorders were unaware that reliability was being assessed. The importance of these findings is discussed in terms of the utility of self-recording as a data-gathering procedure.

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