Can behaviours be measured?

As taught by Dr. Koestner in one PSYC332 class, “behaviour is function of person and environment”.

• ‘Person’ is defined by motives (why we behave), traits (how we behave), schemas (how you interpret things), values (guideline to behaviours), skills and more.
• ‘Environment’ is composed of opportunities, incentives, constraints, and more.

Hence, behaviour is not solely function of the person or the environment alone. Then a question arises: How can we accurately measure behaviour using tests if behaviour is determined by such complex dimensions? For example, motives can be implicit or explicit. Implicit motives are non-conscious and predict how you react to certain situations. How is it possible to assess implicit motives behind a certain behaviour if the actor him/herself doesn’t even know? Another example is opportunities and constraints in environment that occur naturally and spontaneously in different social contexts that are impossible to recreate in labs or when administering tests.

Many tests try to measure complex behaviours with quantitative scales and statistical data. For example, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is designed to measure the construct of self-esteem through 10 items in the form of Likert scale asking participants to rate themselves. The issue in trying to measure self-esteem with self-reported rating is:

1. Subjective biases: individuals do not rate themselves objectively enough and the rating can be influenced by self-perception, deception, self-fulfilling prophecies, etc.
2. Incomplete assessment: self-esteem should definitely not be assessed through self-report only, researchers should look into how people close to participants perceive their self-esteem, their environment, problem-solving strategies, psychological illnesses, rearing background, attributional styles, and more.

To conclude, knowing that behaviour is function of the person and the environment, behaviours should not simply be measured with quantitative methods or tests. We need to incorporate observation and subjectivity when measuring behaviour as much as possible when circumstances allow us to do so.