Galvan, Z. J., & Ward, P. (1998). Effects of public posting on inappropriate on-court behaviors by collegiate tennis players. The Sport Psychologist, 12, 419-426.

The effectiveness of public posting for reducing inappropriate on-court behaviors (e.g., verbal abuse by a player during a match) was evaluated. Five tennis players were observed following a single-subject multiple baseline experimental design.

After baseline, the intervention was divided into two phases. The first intervention phase consisted of discussing baseline data, an explanation of intervention procedures, and goal-setting. The second phase consisted of posting on the team bulletin board in the locker room, the number of inappropriate behaviors displayed the day before. Data were posted as individual graphs.

The intervention was acceptable to the players (social validity). All Ss reduced the occurrence of inappropriate behaviors to well below the lowest baseline observation.

Implication. Public posting of sport environment behavior counts is a viable procedure for reducing inappropriate behaviors provided all observers are under the same contingency.

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