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Behavioural Settings and Behaviour Mapping

Introduction

At first it might seem that behaviour settings and behavioural mapping are two separate and unrelated methods. Yet the true meaning of behaviour setting is that all behaviour is linked to a particular time and place; so any behavioural map is simply a record of behaviour that has always to be used within a behaviour setting. In a very literal sense behavioural mapping is really the footprint of a behaviour setting or settings.

For those unfamiliar with the term ‘behaviour setting’, it refers to a standing pattern of behaviour which is tied to a particular place and time, (these) are simply the easily observed events of everyday life like the grocery store, the lawyer's office, 3rd grade class. They can be observed to begin at a regular time and end at a regular time and contain a recognized pattern of behaviour which is constantly repeated. If it is unclear whether settings which are adjacent in time or place are really separate, the K-21 scale is used. This scale is available in Barker and Wright (1955), Schoggen (1989) or Bechtel (1997). The central idea is overlap of population and behaviour. If there is more than a fifty per cent overlap on the seven scales (population, space used, leadership, objects, action, time, mechanisms) the putative settings are really one. The score of 21 is arbitrarily chosen as the cut off point to separate two units but any score between 17 and 23 can indicate some boundary problems (Bechtel, 1977) of observed human behaviour. They are the units into which humans sort themselves to get the daily business of living done.

Behavioural mapping is the narrower recording of specific behaviours within settings. A behavioural map (Ittelson, Rivlin & Proshansky, 1976) is a recording of where behaviour takes place on a floor plan of the setting, providing a two-dimensional record of the behaviour. In special cases it is also possible to record the behaviour automatically (Bechtel, 1967). Behavioural maps can include more than one behaviour setting.

Behaviour Settings as Assessment Tools

A behaviour setting census – that is, a complete count of behaviour settings in a community over a year – is used to assess either a community or an individual. Community assessment is done by counting the number of behaviour settings (with their population numbers) that occur in a defined community for one year. Assessment of an individual is done by collecting the behavioural range, the number of settings an individual enters in a year or a shorter time span, depending on the purpose of the assessment. A year is necessary in order to include the kinds of settings which only occur once a year like Christmas Eve, Easter, Fourth of July, etc. Merely counting the number of settings can provide a measure of health for both communities and persons.

A healthy community can be defined as one that provides an adequate, or, preferably, more than adequate, number of resources for its inhabitants. Healthy communities have about two settings available for each inhabitant. But there are other aspects which can be deduced from these numbers. For example, when two communities were compared (Barker & Schoggen, 1973), it was observed that one, a midwest town, had more behaviour settings available per child than a town in Great Britain. This was explained by the different philosophies on child rearing that existed in the two communities. In the midwest town it was assumed that the best way to rear children was to get them participating in adult life as soon as they could even though they might not be capable of performing at the adult level. In the British community children were withheld from participation until it was deemed they were capable of participating at a reasonably competent level. The result was the midwest town had twice as many settings where children were present. If one agreed that the midwest philosophy was more valid, then the greater participation would be a measure of a healthy environment for children (and could even quantify the number of settings available to children vs. number of children and be used to evaluate goals). Organizations can be assessed by use of behaviour settings. For example, in the study of school size (Barker & Gump, 1964), it was discovered that large schools had twenty times as many students as small schools but only five times as many settings. The consequence of this was that small schools can have twice the participation level of large schools in extra curricular activities, simply because there is more activity per student. The psychological consequences of this size discrepancy are also critical. Small schools report more satisfaction, competence, being challenged, engaging in important actions (leadership), being involved, achieving more cultural and more moral values. By contrast, large schools report more vicarious enjoyment (passive roles), large affiliation, and learning more about the school and persons in it.

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