Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring is a standardized, empirically based behavioral assessment methodology that has its roots in the field of behavior therapy. It grew out of the dissatisfaction with traditional approaches to assessment based largely on inference, such as interpreting client responses to standardized inkblots or pictures and/or deriving meaning from drawings produced by clients. Behavior therapists sought an approach that provided direct information about important aspects of the client’s experience and his or her environment as they related to the presenting problem. This approach entails the collection of self-observed and recorded data about any number of predetermined, relevant aspects of a client’s experience. It involves the prospective tracking of information by clients in their own lives or environments. Traditional methods of assessment, based on measuring presumed underlying ...