The vast bulk of psychosocial research data about the family are derived from two basic sources: self-report, retrospective data obtained by questionnaires or interviews; and direct observations of behavior occurring in a laboratory or treatment setting. Despite an emerging enthusiasm for the notion of studying behavior in its natural environment (spurred on particularly by the developing fields of ethology and ecological psychology), remarkably little research has been done utilizing in-home observations of American families. One possible reason for the discrepancy between rhetoric and action has been the difficulty in operationalizing the collection of data from the in-home setting and utilizing such data for systematic hypothesis testing. What little work has been done has been carried out primarily by participant-observers who live with the family and collect, by hook or crook, process notes of what they think is going on. Although such an approach is commonplace for the cultural antrhopologist, very few family researchers have exhibited the desire or patience to carry out such work. This report presents a new method, the Home Observation Assessment Method, specifically designed to collect accurate data of interactional behavior in the home as it unfolds in a real time framework. (Author)