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Behaviors can be confusing, especially when they are things we’d rather stop doing. We might ask, “Why did I do that, anyways?” Unfortunately, the answer isn’t always obvious, but a process called behavior chain analysis can be a useful tool for getting to the bottom of pesky bad habits and destructive behaviors.

A behavior chain analysis is a process that can help people better understand why certain behaviors happen. Addressing maladaptive behavior means understanding why it happens in the first place. A chain analysis can help you identify all of the different factors that contribute to that behavior.

Chain analysis can be helpful in the treatment of different mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder (BPD), substance use, and other conditions. It is an important technique in a type of therapy known as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).

What Is a Behavior Chain Analysis?

Also known as functional analysis, a chain analysis is a technique designed to help a person understand the function of a particular behavior. During a chain analysis of a particular problem behavior (for example, deliberate self-harm), a person tries to uncover all the factors that led up to that behavior.

Behaviors can serve multiple functions. Therefore, go through a chain analysis for a number of different situations that led to problem behavior and try to identify all the functions a problem behavior serves for you.

In other words, a person tries to discover all the links in the chain that ultimately resulted in problem behavior. Therefore a chain analysis will help you figure out all the things that can contribute to problem behavior.

Doing a chain analysis takes time and effort, but it can be a useful tool when a person is trying to address specific problem behavior. In many cases, people will try to change a behavior without fully comprehending what is causing it. Chain analysis allows people to better recognize the factors that contribute to it, identify triggers, and look for solutions to stop the problem at many different points.

When to Do a Behavior Chain Analysis

Reasons a person might want to do a behavior include risky behaviors such as:

• Risky behaviors such as substance use or drunk driving
• Aggressive behaviors and violence,
• Behaviors associated with mental disorders
• Self-injury
• Suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior
• Any other action that creates distress, harm, or disruption in a person’s life

Behavior chain analysis can often be useful for addressing specific symptoms of mental health conditions. For example, research has found that it can be useful for negative symptoms of schizophrenia. 

It might also be helpful to identify what things might have made you more susceptible to responding to the situation as you did. For example, when people do not eat well or do not get enough sleep, they may be more susceptible to experiencing negative moods or having more reactive emotional experiences.

How to Do a Chain Analysis

To do a behavior chain analysis, a person identifies the situation they were in, the thoughts they were experiencing, and the feelings they were having just prior to engaging in that behavior.

In doing so, a person can increase their awareness of all the factors that may put them at risk for problem behavior. This way a person has a better ability to intervene early on to prevent that behavior in the future.

Choose the Behavior to Analyze

The first step is to identify the behavior you want to change. For example, do you want to stop engaging in self-medication through alcohol? Binge eating? Try to identify a behavior that is causing problems for you in your life.

Questions you might ask yourself include:

• What was the exact event that led to the behavior?
• When did the problem first start?
• What was happening when it began?
• What thoughts, feelings, or behaviors were you having at the time?

Identify the Links in the Chain

Next, think about what happened prior to you engaging in the problem behavior. After you write down the initial precipitating event, ask yourself what happened next. Questions you can ask yourself include:

• What thought or feeling did you have after it happened?
• What actions followed?
• How did you feel during and after the behavior? 
• What were you doing?
• What was going on around you?
• Were you in an argument?
• Did you have a memory of your traumatic event triggered?

Pay Attention to Thought Patterns

Now, identify what kinds of thoughts were brought up by the situation or event that led to the problem behavior. Questions to ask yourself at this point include:

Understanding the thought patterns that led up to the behavior is important and will allow you to look for ways to change those unhelpful thoughts.

Look for Solutions

The next step is to think about solutions that can address different aspects of the behavior. These solutions will vary depending on the individual, the behavior, and the resources that each person has available. 

• What could you have done differently at each point in the sequence?
• What coping strategies could you have used?
• What skills do you have that would help you deal more effectively with that behavior, thought, or feeling?
• Are there new skills you could learn that would help?

Review the Chain of Events

Think about what emotions you were having as a result of that situation. Try your best to list as many emotions as you possibly can, such as fear, sadness, anger, shame, guilt, embarrassment, or dread.

For example, did you experience shortness of breath? Muscle tension? An increased heart rate? Think about how your body reacted to the situation.

Next, list what your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations made you want to do. That is, did they make you want to escape the situation or do something to make those feelings stop? Did you feel a need to engage in your problem behavior?

Finally, think about the consequences of engaging in your problem behavior. Did you feel better afterward? Did you feel disappointed in yourself? Ashamed? Try to list as many consequences (both positive and negative) as you can.

The idea that sugar can cause attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or make ADHD symptoms worse is a pervasive myth that continues to be widely believed despite a growing body of research that suggests it simply isn’t true. This persistent belief is likely because there seems to be a link between sugar consumption and hyperactivity in children.

In this article, we’ll look at what the science says about the link between sugar and ADHD and what you can do about your sugar intake if you feel it’s negatively impacting your mental health.   

Sugar Does Not Cause ADHD

Sugar can cause a burst of energy, popularly known as a sugar rush, but this should not be confused with ADHD-related hyperactivity. Studies on the connection between sugar and ADHD have found little to no evidence that sugar directly influences ADHD symptoms, let alone causes the neurodevelopmental disorder.

The evidence does suggest that there is a positive association between sugar intake—particularly from sweetened beverages—and specific ADHD symptoms. However, association does not mean one causes the other.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on the relationship between ADHD and sugar, researchers found a positive association between sugar-sweetened beverages and AHDH risk; however, “dietary sugar alone did not increase the risk of developing ADHD symptoms.” This means that other variables may be involved, and more well-designed research studies are needed to isolate the different contributing factors.

Another meta-analysis on the effects of sugar on behavior and cognition concluded that sugar had no effect on cognitive performance or behavior and that the strong belief among caretakers that there was an effect was likely due to the expectation that sugar does cause hyperactivity and other symptoms.

The authors noted that a small subset of children may respond in idiosyncratic ways to sugar or have rare allergic reactions, but this is the exception and not the rule.

For one, many studies relied on information from questionnaires given to parents or caretakers of children with ADHD rather than direct observation or interviews with the subjects with ADHD. Research shows that parents who expect sugar to make their children hyperactive are more likely to perceive their children as hyperactive after consuming sugar than an outside observer.

Another confounding factor is that the sugary foods and beverages consumed contain many other ingredients, including caffeine and micronutrients, that could also impact energy levels and behavior. So, determining the role that sugar specifically played is hard.

Understanding the Relationship Between Sugar and ADHD

There may not be enough evidence to say that sugar is a direct cause of ADHD, but what does that “positive association” mean then? Right now, there’s not enough data to say with certainty how sugar impacts ADHD, but researchers do have some theories.

Sugary Diets Are Also Low in Nutrients

One of the leading theories is that ADHD symptoms are made worse by nutritional deficiencies, and diets high in sugary foods and beverages tend to also be low in nutritious foods. Many studies evaluated the intake specifically of refined sugar, which is found in processed sugary foods like juice, soda, candy, and desserts.

These processed foods tend to contain higher quantities of sugar (such as high fructose corn syrup) than naturally occurring sweet foods like fruit, and they also contain less fiber, protein, and other nutrients that the body needs to function.

One systematic review of the relationship between diet and ADHD found that while a nutrient-lacking diet didn’t necessarily make symptoms worse, a nutritious diet tended to have a “protective effect” against ADHD in the form of reducing symptom severity.

For example, people with ADHD often have lower levels of iron and zinc, both of which play a role in regulating dopamine function. A diet high in sugary, nutrient-lacking processed foods isn’t providing the iron and zinc people with ADHD need to increase levels of those key dopamine regulators.

Sugar Activates the Dopamine System

Another theory is that increased sugar intake is a consequence, rather than a cause, of ADHD. Impulsivity and the preference for immediate rewards rather than delayed rewards make people with ADHD prone to crave sugary foods because sugar triggers a dopamine response in the brain.

Because the dopamine system is already severely dysregulated in ADHD, sugar’s ability to activate it might lead to a kind of self-medicating behavior where people with ADHD consume sugary foods or drinks in order to compensate for low dopamine levels. According to this theory, then, sugar isn’t the cause of ADHD symptoms; it’s an attempt—conscious or unconscious—to treat them.

How to Cut Back on Sugar and Switch to an ADHD-Protective Diet

Even if a diet high in sugar doesn’t cause ADHD, it can cause plenty of other health problems like heart disease and tooth decay. Likewise, even though a healthy diet won’t cure your ADHD, it can make your symptoms easier to manage. So, it’s still worth cutting back on sugar and replacing processed foods with more nutritious items. Here are a few ADHD-friendly tips for reducing sugar and improving your diet.

Don’t Keep Sugary Snacks in the House

Impulse control is hard for people with ADHD. On the upside, object permanence is also challenging, so if the sugary snacks aren’t right in front of you, you might not think about them as much. If you can’t ignore the craving, keeping them out of the house at least makes the sugary snack harder to get.

If possible, enforce a rule that you must walk or bike to the store to pick up the snack (and only buy enough to indulge the current craving). Physical activity may help boost dopamine levels sufficiently enough to make the craving less intense. If not, at least you get some exercise before eating something sugary.

Eat a Fruit or Vegetable first

ADHD brains can be stubborn once they fixate on a reward they want (like the cookies you’re craving), so it can be hard to ignore a craving. But if you eat a big handful of carrots or an entire banana before you reach for the cookies, eating a smaller portion of the sugary snack can be easier.

By the same token, drink a glass of water before a sugary beverage. When you’re thirsty and craving soda or juice, fill your glass with water first. Chug that and then pour in the juice or soda. By the time you start drinking the juice or soda, you can sip it to savor the taste rather than gulping it down to quench your thirst.

Don’t Overcomplicate It with Strict Diets

Having ADHD can make sticking to even the simplest routine seem impossible. Hence, a rigid diet where you’re denying yourself entire food categories or meticulously counting calories is not ideal. Instead of adhering to a completely unfamiliar and strict diet plan, take it one step at a time and opt for simple changes.

You don’t have to give up your favorite sugary foods; try to gradually eat less of them than usual. You don’t have to stock up on the latest expensive superfood; buy some carrots, apples, and other produce that doesn’t spoil too quickly, and make sure those are the first things you see when you open the fridge.

Experiment With Alternative Dopamine Boosters

Since the sugar craving might be your brain’s way of saying it’s low on dopamine, finding other ways to boost dopamine levels can help address that problem without resorting to sugar. Some dopamine-boosting alternatives to sugar include:

• Spicy or flavorful foods. Peppers and other foods that cause a burning sensation also trigger the release of dopamine and endorphins. If you can’t stand the heat, some research suggests that other aromatic herbs and spices like rosemary, sage, lavender, cinnamon, nutmeg, and so on provide a similar dopamine-boosting effect.
• Fun physical activity. Exercise is one of the most well-researched ways to boost dopamine levels. “Working out” might sound like an unbearable chore, but there are many ways to incorporate regular exercise into your day without even glancing at a treadmill. Dance around the house to your favorite playlist when you’re getting ready in the morning. Go for a walk in a nearby park during lunch. Try hiking, horseback riding, tennis, surfing, gymnastics, or any activity that catches your interest on the weekends.
• Go outside in the sunlight. Some research suggests that sunlight may increase dopamine synthesis. Find ways to move some of your daily activities outdoors during the day. Move your coffee date to the park. Grab your laptop and answer emails while sitting on the bench outside your office. Head out to your backyard to take that phone call. Just remember to wear sunscreen.

In the long run, incorporating more of these activities and foods into your daily routine may help reduce your sugar cravings. 

If you’re not happy with your job, it can bleed over into other areas of your life. Job dissatisfaction is stressful, particularly considering that you’ll likely spend about a third of your life working. If you are grappling with feelings of unhappiness or unfulfillment with your job, you might be contemplating whether it’s time to call it quits and move on.

There may be plenty of clues, but what you’re really looking for is a clear sign that says it’s time to say goodbye to your current job. Even when you’re certain it’s the right move, deciding to quit your job can be daunting. You might be concerned about the professional implications, the impact on your future opportunities, and the potential financial consequences of leaving a stable job without a clear next step.

The good news is that you don’t have to wait for that final straw that makes you finally call it quits. Paying attention to some of these five signs that you should leave your job immediately—if you can— will help you feel better prepared to make that choice.

Sign 1: Lack of Growth Opportunities

Career advancement, learning, and growth opportunities are very important for many U.S. workers. According to one survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, 91% of respondents suggested that these opportunities were important to them.

In fact, according to a survey by one HR research firm, a lack of career advancement opportunities is one of the key reasons people often leave their jobs.

“Most of us spend many hours a day at our job and often find a sense of purpose from our professions,” notes Kristin Papa, LCSW, a psychotherapist and founder of Living Openhearted Therapy and Wellness. “Feeling stuck in a job without room to grow can leave us feeling stagnant and questioning our purpose, which can negatively impact our well-being and can lead to lack of motivation, apathy, or resignation.”

If your job seems like a dead end that won’t lead to better opportunities or personal growth, it’s a good indicator that you might want to consider leaving. A role that never changes, doesn’t let you branch out, and doesn’t challenge you is a surefire path to stagnation and dissatisfaction.

Stagnation is a particular problem for middle-age adults, notes Renée Zavislak, MS, MA, LMFT, an integrative therapist. “The psychosocial stage we reach in middle adulthood is called ‘Generativity vs. Stagnation.‘

The primary developmental task for adults in this stage is to develop a sense of purpose, the sense that we are leaving something behind,” she explains. “Without this, we feel stagnant. Intellectual atrophy is definitely the enemy of generativity, so those jobs that offer no growth possibilities are developmentally dangerous.”

So, how can you tell if your job isn’t helping you grow? Key signs include not developing new skills, never taking on new challenges, and never being given opportunities to advance within the company.

Over time, a lack of growth opportunities hampers your professional development and leaves you feeling undervalued, unfulfilled, and disengaged.

Sign 2: Ethical Complications

It’s time to walk away if your employer asks you to compromise your personal values or engage in unethical behavior.

“Ethical complications can be a huge contributor to job dissatisfaction in the workplace. If you are witnessing unethical practices at the job, feeling like you are not in alignment with the ethical beliefs of the employer, or even notice unethical practices among co-workers,” says Jenny Flora Wells, MSW, LSW, ACSW, a holistic therapist based in California. “These experiences lead to an increase in stress and anxiety that are difficult to manage on top of daily job-related duties.” 

In some cases, you might be able to set clear boundaries that make it clear that you won’t compromise your professional standards and risk your reputation—but oftentimes, you may find that it just isn’t worth working for a boss, manager, or company that expects you to do their dirty work for them.

Zavislak notes that ethical complications in the workplace can pose problems in the spiritual quadrant of a person’s life. She has seen such dilemmas create serious issues in her clients’ lives, with some experiencing complications such as depression, insomnia, gastrointestinal problems, and other physical symptoms.

The bottom line is that you don’t want to stay in a place that expects you to ignore your own values, risk your professional reputation, or put yourself in the legal line of fire. If you’re losing sleep about the ethical complications you see at work, it’s time to take a stand and say goodbye.

Sign 3: Mental and Emotional Well-Being

Everyone faces their own mental and emotional challenges, but if your job is taking a serious toll on your psychological well-being, then it’s a strong indicator that it’s time to move on. Prolonged stress, anxiety, and unhappiness at work can have serious consequences, including an increased risk for health problems and burnout.

Zavislak suggests that people consider how their job affects them in four key developmental quadrants: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. If one or more of these areas are being adversely affected, it may be time to move on.

She also notes that being able to consider leaving a job is, in and of itself, an immense privilege.

“For many people, financial hardship renders this matter moot, no matter how unsatisfying the job,” she says. “So if you are lucky enough to have the option to change your gig, consider first how your current employment affects your four developmental quadrants.”

Factors that can lead to emotional and mental health problems include excessive workloads, poor work-life balance, unrealistic expectations, and a toxic workplace. All of this can take a toll on your ability to function well when you’re on the job.

You might feel less engaged, and your self-esteem may suffer. Over time, it can even start to negatively impact your physical health, leading to problems like poor sleep, headaches, digestive problems, and a weakened immune system.

Sign 4: Lack of Interest and Motivation

You don’t always need some big, compelling reason to quit your job. Sometimes, it can be as simple as a lack of interest and motivation. The reality is that if you are finding it harder and harder to muster up even a single ounce of interest in your job, it’s a good sign that you need to take a serious look at why you’re still holding on.

“While boredom and lack of motivation can be signs of burnout and, in that case, maybe a call for a vacation rather than a resignation, chronic feelings of boredom and emptiness are absolutely valid reasons for leaving a job,” Zavislak says.

Remember when you first started your job, and you had that initial spark of excitement and interest? It’s normal for your interest and passion to ebb and occasionally wane. But it’s a major red flag if each day feels like an endless, monotonous grind.

While it might not seem like a huge deal, losing interest in your work can affect your attitude, morale, and productivity. You might find yourself putting in less effort, or you might even start looking for reasons to avoid work tasks that don’t interest you.

“Experiencing boredom at work, characterized by disinterest and detachment from tasks, can lead to a lack of satisfaction, heightened anxiety, and a desire for engaging opportunities,” says Jason Walker, PsyD, PhD, program director and associate professor of industrial-organizational and applied psychology at Adler University.

Over time, this loss of interest can leave you drained, disengaged, and stuck in a rut. It can also have a ripple effect on other areas of your life. You might start to feel aimless, unfulfilled, and without a sense of purpose. It can even have a negative impact on your health, lowering life satisfaction and contributing to symptoms of depression and anxiety.

While there might be ways to bring back that spark (such as switching up your routine, asking for a promotion, or taking on more challenging projects), sometimes the best solution is to move on to something different that helps you grow both personally and professionally.

Sign 5: Toxic Work Environment

A toxic work environment is also a perfectly good reason to say, “I quit.” If heading to the office has started to feel like heading into battle, that’s a good sign that there are some seriously dysfunctional dynamics going on in your workplace.

“Employees who feel undervalued and unsupported or encounter behaviors like bullying or discrimination can have negative impacts on their well-being and job satisfaction,” Walker explains. He also points to research on some of the factors that contribute to a toxic work environment, which include high stress levels, dissatisfaction with compensation, burnout, and lack of opportunities for advancement.

Zavislak suggests that so many of us are bored, stressed out, and drained from our jobs, we tend to accept this as normal. That makes it hard to know exactly where to draw the line.

She suggests asking yourself if your job is interfering with your ability to function in three key areas: your relationships, your physical health, and your emotional health.

“If your job has a negative impact on your relationships, your emotional health, and your physical health, it is definitely time to quit.”

Financial Considerations

Quitting your job can be liberating, especially when you’ve been dealing with some of the issues we’ve discussed. But let’s face it—money is often the deciding factor. Ideally, you’ll have enough in your savings that you’ll feel comfortable walking away from your job without having to worry about the immediate future.

Some financial considerations to think about before you quit your job:

• Make a list of all your expenses, including your rent/mortgage, groceries, utilities, credit card payments, and other debt repayments.
• List any non-essential expenses that you can cut back on as you make the transition.
• Consider what you’ll do about health insurance while you search for a new job; you may qualify for a plan on the insurance marketplace or be able to stay on your current plan through COBRA.
• Update your resume before you quit—and stay in touch with contacts who can serve as good references.

People who beat drug and alcohol addictions feel much better after they quit, but they typically endure a very difficult stage before they begin to feel better: withdrawal.

If you’ve used alcohol, heroin, meth, or other substances for only a short time or have taken only small doses, you might not experience withdrawal. However, if you’ve been binge drinking, using alcohol and/or drugs for a long time, or taking increasingly higher doses over a short time, you might feel quite unwell physically for a while when you stop.

Common Symptoms of Withdrawal

Biological changes occur in your brain during withdrawal as your body seeks homeostasis, causing a mix of physical and emotional symptoms. You might experience some, all, or none of these, depending on the length and intensity of your addiction.

Depression

Although depressive symptoms feel worse than everyday sadness and can mimic clinical depression, they don’t usually last as long. You might experience:

• Feelings of hopelessness, doom, and low self-worth
• A lack of energy and enthusiasm
• Feeling that life ahead is empty without the thrill of getting high or drunk
• Frequent crying
• Difficulty concentrating
• Erratic eating and sleeping patterns

You might even feel let down and disappointed that something that felt so good turned out to be harmful, and leaving such a big part of your life behind might feel like grieving.

Anxiety

You might feel anxiety that’s worse than everyday nervousness—a bit like an unpleasant but short-lived anxiety disorder.

As with depression, some anxiety during withdrawal is to be expected. If you took a drug or drank alcohol to relax, you’re likely to feel tenser. Likewise, if you were essentially self-medicating, you might fear what is going to happen without your usual way of coping.

Physical symptoms of anxiety can make you feel as if something scary is happening. Your breathing and heart rate might increase, sometimes to the point where you feel you can’t catch your breath or that you’re having a heart attack, even though you’re not.

Mood Swings

Rapid fluctuations in mood are common during withdrawal. One minute, you might feel exhausted, as if life is no longer worth living; the next, you might feel the urge to run away because it feels like something awful is about to happen. This back-and-forth can be draining for both you and those around you.

Fatigue

As with anxiety and depression, fatigue is common and normal for people withdrawing from drugs and alcohol. Your body must recover from the damage that drugs and alcohol do, as well as from sleep deprivation, sleep disturbance, overstimulation, and other effects of addiction.

Fatigue is also a common symptom of depression and an after-effect of anxiety. You also might feel tired from the many thoughts and emotions that can overwhelm you when you don’t have alcohol or drugs to numb them.

How to Deal With Withdrawal Symptoms

Remember, your body is recalibrating and healing, so feeling physical and emotional changes is expected. Keep these tips in mind as you navigate the first days and weeks of your healthier lifestyle:

1. Feel and work through your grief. You’re grieving the loss of something you enjoyed—perhaps a significant part of your life. You may even be separating yourself from certain friends or family members. Leaning into the emotions and seeking support can help you come to terms with these losses.
2. Remind yourself symptoms are temporary. Like other symptoms, anxiety, depression, and mood swings are temporary and will eventually lead to significant, positive changes in your body and mind. Life really is worth living, and very soon, it will get much better.
3. Remember, you are safe. You may feel like you want to crawl out of your skin or that you are having a heart attack. Remember, the anxiety you might feel is your body going through a normal healing process.
4. Rest. Withdrawal fatigue is exhausting, but people try to keep going at their usual pace. Instead, listen to your body. Consider taking a break from your regular routine. Don’t socialize for a few days, and take a sick leave from work. Get enough sleep.
5. Practice relaxation skills. Try meditation, deep breathing, exercise—whatever might help you rest your mind and body.
6. Get support. Consider joining a recovery group or seeing a drug and alcohol counselor. You will not be judged or shamed; these peers and/or professionals have been through recovery themselves and help people like you every day. They have access to an arsenal of resources and ways to assist. Talking with someone who understands and validates your feelings can help ease your turmoil.
7. See your doctor or therapist. Suppose your feelings of depression or anxiety continue, and you are finding it difficult to function and cope. In that case, you might be experiencing a substance-induced mood disorder, or you might have had a pre-existing mood disorder that was masked by your drug use. Your healthcare provider or therapist can suggest ways to help calm your nervous system and challenge negative thoughts.

How Long Does Withdrawal Last?

The duration of your withdrawal symptoms depends on the substance you used, along with the length and intensity of your addiction—typically, just a few days, but weeks or months in some cases.

When to Get Help

After the first week or two of withdrawal, your needs change. This is typically a good time to get treatment, which will help you understand why you drank or used drugs in the first place and help set you up for a life without alcohol or drugs. Some people can do this on their own, but many benefit from extra support during the first few months to avoid relapse.

Occasionally, withdrawal symptoms go on for months, or they go away and then come back. This is known as post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS) and can occur with alcohol and other drugs. If it happens to you, talk to your doctor about getting more help.

Final Thoughts

Facing depression, anxiety, and other emotional symptoms during withdrawal can be very difficult. Know that you are not weak; this is challenging for almost everyone. However, you won’t regret your decision once you come through withdrawal. The payoff is a healthier, happier, more productive lifestyle at home, work, and play.

Naturalistic observation is a research method that involves observing subjects in their natural environment. This approach is often used by psychologists and other social scientists. It is a form of qualitative research, which focuses on collecting, evaluating, and describing non-numerical data.

It can be useful if conducting lab research would be unrealistic, cost-prohibitive, or would unduly affect the subject’s behavior. The goal of naturalistic observation is to observe behavior as it occurs in a natural setting without interference or attempts to manipulate variables.

This article discusses how naturalistic observation works and the pros and cons of doing this type of research. It also covers how data is collected and examples of when this method might be used in psychology research.

How Does Naturalistic Observation Work?

People do not necessarily behave in a lab setting the way they would in a natural environment. Researchers sometimes want to observe their subject’s behavior as it happens (“in the wild,” so to speak). Psychologists can get a better idea of how and why people react the way that they do by watching how they respond to situations and stimuli in real life.

For example, a researcher interested in aspects of classroom behavior (such as the interactions between students or teacher-student dynamics) might use naturalistic observation as part of their research.

Performing these observations in a lab would be difficult because it would involve recreating a classroom environment. This would likely influence the behavior of the participants, making it difficult to generalize the observations made.

By observing the subjects in their natural setting (the classroom where they work and learn), the researchers can more fully observe the behavior they are interested in as it occurs in the real world.

Naturalistic Observation Pros and Cons 

Like other research methods, naturalistic observation has advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

An advantage of naturalistic observation is that it allows the investigators to directly observe the subject in a natural setting. The method gives scientists a first-hand look at social behavior and can help them notice things that they might never have encountered in a lab setting.

The observations can also serve as inspiration for further investigations. The information gleaned from naturalistic observation can lead to insights that can be used to help people overcome problems and lead to healthier, happier lives.

Other advantages of naturalistic observation include:

• Allows researchers to study behaviors or situations that cannot be manipulated in a lab due to ethical concerns. For example, it would be unethical to study the effects of imprisonment by actually confining subjects. But researchers can gather information by using naturalistic observation in actual prison settings.
• Can support the external validity of research. Researchers might believe that the findings of a lab study can be generalized to a larger population, but that does not mean they would actually observe those findings in a natural setting. They may conduct naturalistic observation to make that confirmation.

Cons

Naturalistic observation can be useful in many cases, but the method also has some downsides. Some of these include:

• Inability to draw cause-and-effect conclusions: The biggest disadvantage of naturalistic observation is that determining the exact cause of a subject’s behavior can be difficult.
• Lack of control: Another downside is that the experimenter cannot control for outside variables.
• Lack of validity: While the goal of naturalistic observation is to get a better idea of how it occurs in the real world, experimental effects can still influence how people respond. The Hawthorne effect and other demand characteristics can play a role in people altering their behavior simply because they know they are being observed.
• Observer bias: The biases of the people observing the natural behaviors can influence the interpretations that experimenters make.

It is also important to note that naturalistic observation is a type of correlational research (others include surveys and archival research). A correlational study is a non-experimental approach that seeks to find statistical relationships between variables. Naturalistic observation is one method that can be used to collect data for correlational studies.

While such methods can look at the direction or strength of a relationship between two variables, they cannot determine if one causes the other. As the saying goes, correlation does not imply causation.

Data Collection Methods 

Researchers use different techniques to collect and record data from naturalistic observation. For example, they might write down how many times a certain behavior occurred in a specific period of time or take a video recording of subjects.

• Audio or video recordings: Depending on the type of behavior being observed, the researchers might also decide to make audio or videotaped recordings of each observation session. They can then later review the recordings.
• Observer narrative: The observer might take notes during the session that they can refer back to. They can collect data and discern behavior patterns from these notes.
• Tally counts: The observer writes down when and how many times certain behaviors occurred.

How Often Is Data Collected?

It is rarely practical—or even possible—to observe every moment of a subject’s life. Therefore, researchers often use sampling to gather information through naturalistic observation.

The goal is to make sure that the sample of data is representative of the subject’s overall behavior. A representative sample is a selection that accurately depicts the characteristics that are present in the total subject of interest. A representative sample can be obtained through:

• Time sampling: This involves taking samples at different intervals of time (random or systematic). For example, a researcher might observe a person in the workplace to notice how frequently they engage in certain behaviors and to determine if there are patterns or trends.
• Situation sampling: This type of sampling involves observing behavior in different situations and settings. An example of this would be observing a child in a classroom, home, and community setting to determine if certain behaviors only occur in certain settings.
• Event sampling: This approach involves observing and recording each time an event happens. This allows the researchers to better identify patterns that might be present. For example, a researcher might note every time a subject becomes agitated. By noting the event and what was occurring around the time of each event, researchers can draw inferences about what might be triggering those behaviors.

Examples of Naturalistic Observation

Imagine that you want to study risk-taking behavior in teenagers. You might choose to observe behavior in different settings, such as a sledding hill, a rock-climbing wall, an ice-skating rink, and a bumper car ride. After you operationally define “risk-taking behavior,” you would observe your teen subjects in these settings and record every incidence of what you have defined as risky behavior.

Famous examples of naturalistic observations include Charles Darwin’s journey aboard the HMS Beagle, which served as the basis for his theory of natural selection, and Jane Goodall’s work studying the behavior of chimpanzees in their natural habitat.

Research has shown that about 75% of people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) will make at least one suicide attempt in their lifetime, and many will make multiple suicide attempts.

People with BPD are also more likely to complete suicide than individuals with any other psychiatric disorder. An estimated 3% to 10% of people with BPD complete suicide, which is more than 50 times the rate of suicide in the general population.

Factors in BPD-Related Self-Harm and Suicide

Several factors related to BPD might explain why suicide, self-harm, and suicide attempts are so common.

Severe Emotional Pain

BPD is associated with intense negative emotional experiences. These experiences are so painful that many people with BPD report wanting to escape. They may use various strategies to try to reduce their emotional pain, such as deliberate self-harm, substance use, and even suicide.

Duration

BPD is a chronic condition and usually lasts for years. One of the most unique aspects of BPD is suicidal ideation. People with this condition may consider suicide daily for months, even years. This may leave people with BPD feeling that there is no other way out, despite the availability of effective treatments.

Comorbidity

BPD tends to co-occur with other mental disorders, such as bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizoaffective disorder. When there are other mental disorders present, the risk of suicide increases.

Impulsivity

BPD is associated with impulsivity, or a tendency to act quickly without thinking about consequences. Individuals with BPD may engage in suicidal behaviors in a moment of intense emotional pain without fully considering the consequences.

Substance Use

BPD often co-occurs with substance use, and the use of drugs or alcohol is a risk factor for suicide all by itself. When substance use issues are combined with BPD, this may be a particularly lethal combination. Substance use can lead to even greater impulsivity, and people who are using substances have access to a means for overdose.

Brain Abnormalities

Brain imaging has shown that compared to healthy people, individuals with BPD tend to have abnormalities involving the brain’s structure, metabolism, and function. These abnormalities appear to contribute to BPD symptoms such as impulsivity and aggression, both of which are associated with suicidal behavior.

One study explored the relationship between impulsivity, aggression, and suicidal behavior in the brain structures of people with BPD who had attempted suicide. The participants were put into two groups depending on how lethal their suicide attempts had been. In the group labeled “high lethality,” meaning their suicide attempts had been extremely harmful, there was less gray matter in multiple areas of the brain than in the “low lethality” group.

A similar study also showed a significantly reduced amount of gray matter in the brains of individuals with BPD when compared with healthy people. In people with BPD who had attempted suicide, there was less gray matter in eight out of nine areas.

In people with BPD who had not attempted suicide, there was less gray matter in five out of nine areas. And, similar to the other study, the higher lethality suicide attempters had notably less gray matter than the lower lethality attempters in certain areas.

Helping Someone With BPD Who Is Suicidal

You might pick up on signs of suicidality even if your loved one hasn’t said anything about suicide. If you think your loved one may be thinking of suicide, talk with them. Let them know you’re worried about them and ask whether your concerns are valid. Offer to help.

This can be hard because symptoms can make the person with BPD difficult to deal with. For the time being, however, the most important thing is to help your loved one stay safe. Showing care and concern can go a long way.