The Interpersonal Process Code (IPC)

Abstract

this research, initiated by Gerald Patterson and John Reid, was to understand the contribution of family interaction to the development of childhood antisocial behavior (Patterson, 1982; Patterson, Reid & Dishion, in press; Reid & Patterson, 1989), and to design effective intervention programs. The most recent observation tool used to study family interaction was the Family Process Code (FPC) (Dishion et al, 1983). This code was heavily influenced by the Family Interaction Coding System (FICS) (Reid, 1978). The FICS code worked well as an observational measure of treatment outcome, and for the early studies of coercive family processes (Patterson, 1982). The FICS code used a time sampling procedure, and therefore did not provide information as to the sequencing and duration required to develop a process model of the development of child antisocial behavior in families. The FPC was OSLC'S third generation effort to construct a process coding system, following the FICS. The Stimulus Control (Moore et al., 1977) and MOSAIC (Moore, Toobert et al., 1979) coding systems were the two codes that preceded the FPC.