Theoretical Explanations for Reactivity in Self-Monitoring

Self-monitoring is the procedure by which individuals record the occurrences of their own target behaviors. In addition to providing a source of data, self-monitoring is also used as a therapeutic strategy because it often causes reactive behavior changes in response frequency. Three alternative viewpoints to account for this reactivity are presented. Kanfer's position (1970a, 1970b, 1975, 1977) is that the self-monitoring response leads to self-evaluation and self-administered consequences that alter response frequency. Rachlin (1974) holds that the self-monitoring response cues the ultimate environmental consequences that control behavior rate. In an extension of Rachlin's view, Hayes and Nelson (1977) propose that the entire self-monitoring process (therapist instructions, training, self-recording device, self-monitoring responses) prompts the external consequences that control behavior frequency. This extension provides theoretical parsimony in positing environmental antecedents as well as consequences for reactivity. The extension also best accounts for data in which reactivity is not linked to the occurrence of the self-monitoring responses (i.e., reactivity occurs despite inaccurate self-monitoring, low frequency behaviors, and unused self-monitoring devices). Similarly, this view accounts for the parallel effects produced when monitoring is done by external agents.