ADAPTATION TO THE INVASION OF PRIVACY: MONITORING BEHAVIOR WITH A MINIATURE RADIO TRANSMITTER1

Abstract

The impetus for the work presented in this report stems from several beliefs about the desirability and significance of certain approaches to the assessment of human behavior. These beliefs, which are briefly stated for background, include: (a) the central significance of the study of social behavior to the psychology of personality; (b) the importance of direct observation of such behavior in naturalistic settings; (c) the necessity for observing a person's social behavior in an adequate sample of social en vironments; and (d) the particular usefulness of vocal behavior as an avenue for exploration of human interaction. These considerations led us to seek a sample of naturally occurring behavior which would include the complete verbal output of the partici pants. The method chosen to collect such a sample involved the use of a miniature radio transmitter worn by the subject, a procedure first tried by Soskin (1963). Clearly, the question of whether a person's knowledge that his speech is being monitored alters his behavior in important ways is critically relevant to the use of this research technique. If, for example, negative results emerge from any given study, there must be a clear answer to the question, Did the presence of the transmitter so alter the behavior of a subject and others that certain behavioral relationships were obscured or distorted?