2017 Methodology Applications Series: Profile-based observational coding: Capturing children’s patterns of responding to interpersonal threat
Meredith Martin, Ph.D.
The MAP Academy invites you to the 2017 Methodology Applications Series, featuring Meredith Martin, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology.
Friday April 14, 2017 Nebraska Union
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Abstract
Profile-based observational coding: Capturing children’s patterns of responding to interpersonal threat
Observational methodology provides a uniquely rich and flexible approach to assessing child behavior.
The first half of this presentation will outline strategies for successfully developing, implementing, and tailoring observational coding systems to child and adolescent behaviors in social interaction across relationships (e.g., parent-child, family triadic, peers) and in various assessment contexts (e.g., discussions, quasi-experimental tasks, free-play).
The second half of the presentation will introduce a novel approach to observational coding designed to yield continuous scores reflecting the degree to which children exemplify distinct, functional profiles of behavior. Observational methodology is uniquely suited to capturing behaviors that may have different meanings/serve different functions depending on an individual’s proximate context and the temporal unfolding of behavior. Several examples of profile-based coding systems developed to assess children’s responses to interpersonal threat (i.e., aggression, rejection, hostility) will be presented to illustrate this technique.
Details
Date, Time, & Location
Friday, April 14, 2017
12:00-1:30 PM
Nebraska Union, Colonial A & B
This presentation is free, open to the public, and requires no registration.
Meredith Martin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Psychology
Martin’s research is driven by a desire to help children overcome social adversity by effectively capitalizing on personal strengths and social supports. She focuses on the motivations underlying social behavior and the ecological factors that influence how individuals balance competing goals across development. At its core is the contention that maintaining a sense of safety and security is a fundamental human need. With this in mind, she aims to identify the confluence of intra- and interpersonal factors that shape the strategies children adopt to maintain a sense of security across relationship contexts and to pinpoint the unfolding developmental consequences of balancing security with other developmental goals.
Martin is particularly interested in the affective, psychological, and behavioral nature of children’s coping with interpersonal threat (e.g., anger, aggression, rejection, competition). In the family, her research has focused on interparental conflict as a salient stressor for children. In school contexts, she is primarily interested in peer threats, ranging from social exclusion to bullying, and how these complex social dynamics interact with other interpersonal relationships (e.g., close friendships). Currently, Martin is serving as head of the developmental branch of the Nebraska Bullying Prevention Academy at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and is studying the role of insecurity in the experience and perpetration of school bullying.