What is a behavior?

What is a behavior? And how did you know if it happened?

Seems easy enough – Did you do a thing or did you not do that thing. So, why is this a question that is going to be asked on my PhD comprehensive exam?

Behaviors are defined by four dimensions: action, target, context, and time (Fishbein, & Ajzen, 2010). If you want to conduct effective and precise behavioral research (or are just nosy), define these four behavioral dimensions in specificity.

Let’s take a research example...

The research question is: “What behaviors predict success after a highly competitive, professional development opportunity (ex: grant funding)?”

For the sake of ease, we will define “success” as a yes-or-no, self-reported measure: “Did you have a desired professional outcome as a result of the opportunity (ex: job placement, academic placement, etc.)?”

A career catalyst like a professional development opportunity can be material/financial (typically funding) or skills-based, like an internship or mentorship. The goal of these opportunities is to acquire unique skills and networks, platforming to a desired professional outcome.

So, now we have a defined binary outcome (the yes-or-no question about perceived success). But, this is not necessarily a behavior.

The next task is to figure out, what kinds of behaviors might lead to this outcome, “success”?

Working hard?

Networking?

Networking is a behavior!

There are a lot of ways to conduct my research on “success.”

Sometimes researchers watch people, like in a lab setting

Another research approach is: I can ask a bunch of people “Did you network?”

But, if I ask 10 different people this question, they will all have 10 different understandings of what it means to “network.” Johnny is thinking about adding connections on LinkedIn, Ronnie is thinking about giving out their business cards in line at Starbucks, while Bonnie is thinking of the department happy hour. My analysis is thrown in the trash because I cannot claim to know what these people were doing.

Behaviors are defined by four dimensions: action, target, context, and time (Fishbein, & Ajzen, 2010).

Action: The thing that you are doing

Target: To whom or what you are doing it to

Context: Where it is happening (this can be a digital space!)

Time: Reoccurring? During a certain era?

So, I want to be much more specific, if I am really going to be able to make any claims about networking behaviors. If I am studying behaviors related to success after a professional development opportunity, I need to specify the behaviors which happen at that time.

I can ask: “Did you add connections with professionals in your field on LinkedIn during your award period?”

Behavior	Action Element	Target	Context	Time
Networking	Add connections	With professionals in your field	On LinkedIn	During the time of your award period?

What if I want to I ask about networking as a behavior in a way that gets me more information? Well, I need to ask about the behavior in a “numbery” way, not a “category” (yes-or-no) way.

I can ask my research participants: “How many connections with professionals in your field did you add on LinkedIn during your award period?” Or, “How often did you add connections with professionals in your field on LinkedIn during your award period? (versus being added by others)”

Asking people about their behavior is a simple, commonplace, time-tested methodology (not to mention- satisfying, for nosy people like me). But there is some information people won't tell you (or, can't).

In my next blog, I talk about why I prefer computational measurement over self-report!