THE GENERALITY OF BEHAVIORAL DATA I: GENERALIZATION FROM OBSERVATIONS ON ONE OCCASION

Abstract

The results of two experiments designed to study the generalization potential in behavioral data are reported. Both experiments investigated the effect of variation of task and group composition on ratings of behavior based on direct observation of individuals in group situations. Experiment I under- took ratings of military conscripts and Experiment II undertook ratings of children seven years of age. One main result was obtained common to both experiments: When the situation variation encompassed both task and group composition simultaneously the relationship was random between ratings made independently by two teams of judges, after one observation instance for each team. The correlation was mostly of considerable size, when the situations in which the two teams made their observations were identical o r differed only in respect to task or group composition.