“Single subject research (also known as single case experiments) is popular in the fields of special

education and counseling. This research design is useful when the researcher is attempting to
change the behavior of an individual or a small group of individuals and wishes to document that
change. Unlike true experiments where the researcher randomly assigns participants to a control
and treatment group, in single subject research the participant serves as both the control and
treatment group. The researcher uses line graphs to show the effects of a particular intervention or
treatment. An important factor of single subject research is that only one variable is changed at a
time. Single subject research designs are “weak when it comes to external validity….Studies
involving single-subject designs that show a particular treatment to be effective in changing behavior
must rely on replication–across individuals rather than groups–if such results are be found worthy of
generalization” (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006, p. 318).
Suppose a researcher wished to investigate the effect of praise on reducing disruptive behavior over
many days. First she would need to establish a baseline of how frequently the disruptions occurred.
She would measure how many disruptions occurred each day for several days. In the example
below, the target student was disruptive seven times on the first day, six times on the second day,
and seven times on the third day. Note how the sequence of time is depicted on the x-axis
(horizontal axis) and the dependent variable (outcome variable) is depicted on the y-axis (vertical
axis).

Once a baseline of behavior has been established (when a consistent pattern emerges with at least
three data points), the intervention begins. The researcher continues to plot the frequency of
behavior while implementing the intervention of praise.
In this example, we can see that the frequency of disruptions decreased once praise began. The
design in this example is known as an A-B design. The baseline period is referred to as A and the
intervention period is identified as B.

Another design is the A-B-A design. An A-B-A design (also known as a reversal design) involves
discontinuing the intervention and returning to a nontreatment condition.

Sometimes an individual’s behavior is so severe that the researcher cannot wait to establish a
baseline and must begin with an intervention. In this case, a B-A-B design is used. The intervention
is implemented immediately (before establishing a baseline). This is followed by a measurement
without the intervention and then a repeat of the intervention.
Multiple-Baseline Design
Sometimes, a researcher may be interested in addressing several issues for one student or a single
issue for several students. In this case, a multiple-baseline design is used.
“In a multiple baseline across subjects design, the researcher introduces the intervention to different
persons at different times. The significance of this is that if a behavior changes only after the
intervention is presented, and this behavior change is seen successively in each subject’s data, the
effects can more likely be credited to the intervention itself as opposed to other variables. Multiple-
baseline designs do not require the intervention to be withdrawn. Instead, each subject’s own data
are compared between intervention and nonintervention behaviors, resulting in each subject acting
as his or her own control (Kazdin, 1982). An added benefit of this design, and all single-case
designs, is the immediacy of the data. Instead of waiting until postintervention to take measures on
the behavior, single-case research prescribes continuous data collection and visual monitoring of
that data displayed graphically, allowing for immediate instructional decision-making. Students,
therefore, do not linger in an intervention that is not working for them, making the graphic display of
single-case research combined with differentiated instruction responsive to the needs of students.”
(Geisler, Hessler, Gardner, & Lovelace, 2009)
Regardless of the research design, the line graphs used to illustrate the data contain a set of
common elements.

Generally, in single subject research we count the number of times something occurs in a given time
period and see if it occurs more or less often in that time period after implementing an intervention.
For example, we might measure how many baskets someone makes while shooting for 2 minutes.
We would repeat that at least three times to get our baseline. Next, we would test some intervention.
We might play music while shooting, give encouragement while shooting, or video the person while
shooting to see if our intervention influenced the number of shots made. After the 3 baseline
measurements (3 sets of 2 minute shooting), we would measure several more times (sets of 2
minute shooting) after the intervention and plot the time points (number of baskets made in 2
minutes for each of the measured time points). This works well for behaviors that are distinct and
can be counted.
Sometimes behaviors come and go over time (such as being off task in a classroom or not listening
during a coaching session). The way we can record these is to select a period of time (say 5
minutes) and mark down every 10 seconds whether our participant is on task. We make a minimum
of three sets of 5 minute observations for a baseline, implement an intervention, and then make
more sets of 5 minute observations with the intervention in place. We use this method rather than
counting how many times someone is off task because one could continually be off task and that
would only be a count of 1 since the person was continually off task. Someone who might be off task
twice for 15 second would be off task twice for a score of 2. However, the second person is certainly
not off task twice as much as the first person. Therefore, recording whether the person is off task at
10-second intervals gives a more accurate picture. The person continually off task would have a
score of 30 (off task at every second interval for 5 minutes) and the person off task twice for a short
time would have a score of 2 (off task only during 2 of the 10 second interval measures.
I hope this helps you better understand single subject research.
I have created a PowerPoint about SingleSubject.ppt.
I have also created instructions for creating single-subject research design graphs with Excel.

References
Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2006). How to design and evaluate research in education (6th ed.).
Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Geisler, J. L., Hessler, T., Gardner, R., III, & Lovelace, T. S. (2009). Differentiated writing
interventions for high-achieving urban African American elementary students. Journal of Advanced
Academics, 20, 214–247.

“Penelitian subjek tunggal (juga dikenal sebagai eksperimen kasus tunggal) sangat populer
di bidang pendidikan dan konseling khusus. Desain penelitian ini berguna ketika peneliti
berusaha mengubah perilaku individu atau sekelompok kecil individu dan ingin
mendokumentasikan perubahan itu. Tidak seperti eksperimen sebenarnya di mana peneliti
secara acak menugaskan peserta ke dalam kelompok kontrol dan pengobatan, dalam
penelitian subjek tunggal, peserta berfungsi sebagai kelompok kontrol dan kelompok
perlakuan. Peneliti menggunakan grafik garis untuk menunjukkan efek intervensi atau
pengobatan tertentu. Faktor penting dari penelitian subjek tunggal adalah bahwa hanya
satu variabel yang diubah pada suatu waktu. Desain penelitian subjek tunggal adalah
“lemah ketika datang ke validitas eksternal .... Studi yang melibatkan desain subjek tunggal
yang menunjukkan perlakuan khusus untuk menjadi efektif dalam mengubah perilaku harus
bergantung pada replikasi-lintas individu daripada kelompok-jika hasil tersebut ditemukan
layak generalisasi ”(F ...
Source: English