AN INDIVIDUAL-SUBJECT APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF COMMUNITY-BASED INTERVENTIONS

Community intervention research has employed group designs and repeated measures in an attempt to demonstrate intervention effectiveness. Indeed, targeting a group of individuals has been a defining methodological tactic for examining problem behaviors thought to have a widespread detrimental impact across society. Unfortunately, this common methodological approach may actually retard a comprehensive and ongoing process of understanding environment and behavior relationships. This article offers a complementary individual-subject approach to evaluating community-based interventions in order to construct a specific knowledge of community behavior and intervention effectiveness. Specifically, three research benefits of an individual-subject approach are illustrated by documenting the study of a single individual's safety belt use. They are research economy, intensity, and flexibility.