The focal coding system of emotions and reactions to emotions
utilizes focal-target, mutually exclusive and exhaustive
observational coding for use in naturalistic contexts. For the
first 5-minute coding trial, observers note for the presence
of emotion codes, watching the focal individual’s facial,
vocal, and behavioral expressions of emotion. When an emotion
is coded, the target individual(s)’ reactions to this emotion,
via facial, vocal, and/or behavioral means, are immediately
coded. If the focal individual has ceased emoting by the end
of target reaction coding, the observer codes the focal
individual as neutral, and continues to watch for additional
focal emotion coding opportunities. Upon completion of the
first trial, observers switch focal and target individuals and
complete another 5-minute coding trial, altogether
constituting a 10-minute session; 8 sessions are completed in
total. Focal-target mutually exclusive and exhaustive coding
produces data streams that fit the necessary conditions for
advanced analyses, including lag sequential analyses. Our
laboratory is currently using tablet computers and an
observational software package developed and maintained by Dr.
William Roberts that facilitates the coding and analyses
of focal-target data. Both a peer-child and teacher-child
version is used by our lab in preschool classrooms (Focal-t),
and legacy parent-child and peer-child versions have been used
in the past (Focal-parent/peer).
