Part 1. Observations
For my observations, I will use two characters from the excellent TV limited series “Alias Grace”, an adaptation of the famous novel written by Margaret Atwood by the same name: Grace Marks and Dr. Simon Jordan.
Grace Marks is usually doing something with her hands and rarely keeps them still, which is a common behavior.
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In my first observation, in episode 4, Grace Marks is once again in a session with Dr. Jordan. While Dr. Jordan appears lost in thought, Grace greets him while adjusting her headgear. Once she sits down to converse with Dr. Jordan, she is immediately patting down her skirt and apron; once she finishes smoothing them out, she brings out a quilt and resumes her knitting from the last session while speaking to Dr. Jordan.
In my second observation, in episode 5, Grace is doing something with her hands when Dr. Jordan begins the session: she is continuing her knitwork. She continues knitting throughout the session, even while relating complicated stories about things she cannot fully remember and is trying very hard to recall for Dr. Jordan. She stops intermittently, but resumes quickly.
In my third observation, also in episode 5, Grace, while relating a story about her trial in court that resulted in a guilty verdict, clasps her hands together as though in prayer. She states that she cannot do anything about what other people say, that she cannot force other people to believe her word over others’, and tells her story about a friend who testified against her. Her hands are still throughout the scene, until the moment that she identifies that piece of testimony as the most damaging to her case. As she says that, she stops looking down, and is now looking straight at the doctor while rubbing her hands slightly together.
Dr. Jordan often shifts his gaze away when he is saying something that might hurt or cause discomfort to himself or the person he is speaking to, which is a common behavior as well.
In my first observation, in episode 4, when Dr. Jordan is listening to Grace’s opinion about the moral responsibility of humans in the face of God’s all-knowing power, he looks straight at her for some moments before looking down, in contrast to Grace who looks at him for longer periods of time. When Grace tells him about what she thinks of God’s nature and how He differs from men, Dr. Jordan is staring wide-eyed at her, then looks down twice in quick succession, while Grace is gazing at him unblinkingly.
In my second observation, in episode 5, when Dr. Jordan is presenting a preview of his prospective results to a Committee of gentlemen and ladies from the local church interested in absolving Grace, Dr. Jordan starts out by looking at the audience members but gradually begins to look downward more and more as he goes along. He also wipes his forehead and brow while continuing to look down, away from the gathered audience. When he expresses his lack of confidence about the methods he had spent a considerable amount of time learning in helping Grace, he looks down to the floor and even closes his eyes for some seconds, sometimes looking out to the nearby window.
In my third observation, in episode 6, when Dr. Jordan is listening to Grace relating her story about being punished in the asylum and having her hair cut off, he is looking straight at her while she is looking away. After he stares at her for some time, he suggests that Grace undergo hypnotism after being initially reluctant to the idea in previous sessions, and looks away while doing so. He gives Grace three quick glances, spaced with long periods of looking down, in response to her starting a sentence, and cuts her off, explaining his change of mind about Dr. DuPont, the hypnotist. Grace often meets his eye, but Dr. Jordan continues to make eye contact fleetingly while explaining his idea about hynopotism to her.
Part 2. Observations, Definitions, and Data Recording Forms
Observations: Grace appears to be a restless person. She actively seeks out activities for her hands while in session with Dr. Jordan. It is rare for her to sit still while relating her memories, instead she caresses objects, clasps her hands together, knits quilts, smooths her skirt, fixes her headgear, among other activities, while keeping the rest of her body relatively still and rigid. Dr. Jordan appears to be a shy or nice person who dislikes conflict and discomfort to a degree that he cannot keep eye contact if he believes that he is doing something that is in conflict or causes discomfort to the person he is speaking to. Whenever he expresses a lack of confidence, is made aware of his limitations as a doctor and as a human being, is shocked by Grace’s statements, or proposes solutions he is unsure of, he tends to look at unrelated places while relaying the most pertinent information of his statements.
According to Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2007), when attempting to identify the definitions of behaviors, the advice of Hawkins and Dobes (1977) remain to be gold standard, namely, that a definition of a behavior must be comprehensive, inclusive, and concise.
Definition of Grace’s behavior: Restlessness of hands and inability to keep still and focus completely on the specified task during stressful times.
Definition of Dr. Jordan’s behavior: Inability to keep eye contact with others and looking away at everything else but one’s conversational partners during stressful or uncomfortable times.
There are a number of ways to assess the reliability, validity, and accuracy of these behavioral measurements. Foremost is the counting of these behaviors from the baseline level of typical behavior (McKenzie, 2010). For instance, in the case of Grace, a typical person would have no issue keeping their hands still for the short amount of time required to relate a memory. Grace spends almost no time keeping her hands still during the observed periods of time. Multiple events of doing something with her hands dot the sessions with Dr. Jordan. In the first observation, she comes in adjusting her headgear, sits down and smooths her skirt, places her hand on her laps for a moment, then brings out her quilt to knit. There are three instances of the aforementioned behavior in a short period of time. Some issues that may arise from counting occurrences that could affect the validity and accuracy of the measurement is that the duration of the behaviors may be important to consider. If Grace does one thing with her hands throughout a session, this only counts as one long activity, which might underrepresent the severity of the behavior compared to multiple events of different activities using her hands. A potential limitation may also arise if the instances of the behavior are extreme in number, where it would be difficult to count and thus difficult to make use of solid data (Lee, Vostal, Lylo, & Hua, 2011).
The data recording method I chose was based on frequency, because the behaviors of the subjects were repetitive, and the instances of their repetition served as indicators of their intensity.
| Time Period | Grace Marks | Dr. Jordan |
| Observation 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Observation 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Observation 3 | 2 | 6 |
References
Cooper, J., Heron, T., & Heward, W. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis. Columbus, OH: Merrill
Publishing Company.
Hawkins, R. P., & Dobes, R. W. (1977). Behavioral definitions in applied behavior analysis:
Explicit or implicit. New Developments in Behavioral Research: Theory, Method, and Application , 167-188.
Lee, D. L., Vostal, B., Lylo, B., & Hua, Y. (2011). Collecting behavioral data in general
education settings: A primer for behavioral data collection. Beyond Behavior , 20 (2), 22-30.
McKenzie, T. L. (2010). 2009 CH McCloy lecture seeing is believing: observing physical
activity and its contexts. Research quarterly for exercise and sport , 81 (2), 113-122.
