Practical issues in self-observation

Using self-observation as a clinical or research tool requires attention to a number of practical concerns. In this article, issues involved in selecting a self-observation method are considered, including determining the dimension of behavior to be observed and choosing a method and recording device for sampling behavior. The literature on Graining individuals to self-observe, which supports the importance of comprehensive multicomponent braining, is surveyed. Also considered are ways of evaluating and improving data quality as the self-observer collects information and of engineering compliance with requests to self-monitor. Future research should (a) systematically examine ways of obtaining high, quality self-observation data and enhancing participant compliance and (b) extend findings of older investigations both to contemporary methods of collecting information and to self-observation of private events.