Interactional Coding System (ICS) as a Data Collection Tool for Observing Couples' Problem-solving Interactions

Abstract

The aim of this research is to introduce the Interactional Coding System (ICS), adapted to Turkish culture in order to observe couples' problem-solving interactions. Within the scope of the study, the results of some empirical studies using ICS have been compiled and some ideas about future studies are presented. In ICS, behaviors that occur during the interaction are coded simultaneously in two dimensions as verbal and non-verbal. There are three categories for both verbal and nonverbal behaviors: positive, negative, and neutral. During the ICS adaptation process, 25 married couples were studied. The video recordings of three randomly selected couples were encoded by two separate encoders. The Kappa coefficient was found to be .88 (p <.001) for verbal codes and .81 (p <.001) for non-verbal codes. This showed that the study is a very reliable study for coders.

Keywords

• Problem-solving Interaction
• Observational Coding Systems
• Communication Skills

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