Transcript Chapter 19

Chapter 20
Behavioral Assessment:
Initial Considerations
Behavior Modification Program
Phases

Screening/Intake:
Presenting concerns
Agency Policies
Crisis screening
Diagnosis (insurance)
Behavior Modification Program
Phases (cont.)

Baseline Phase: Assess behavior quantitatively
(frequency, duration, etiology severity, quality,
environmental controls).
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Treatment Phase: Design a program using the tools
we’ve learned thus far. Assess success, redesign if
necessary and fade stimuli/reduce consequences to
bring behavior under control of natural reinforcers.

Follow-up Phase: See if behavior maintains, adjust
natural reinforcers or begin treatment again.
Indirect Assessment
Procedures

Interviews with the Client and
Significant Others (See Table 20-1)
Rapport
Non-judgmental
Confidentiality
Set target behaviors
Indirect Assessment
Procedures (cont.)
 Questionnaires
Life History
Survey
Rating scales and checklists (CBCL,
Conners, BASC, etc.)
Indirect Assessment
Procedures (cont.)
Role Playing ( to assess behavior in
office).
 Information from Consulting
Professionals.
 Client Self-Monitoring ( not as good as
trained observers).

Direct Assessment
Procedures
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More accurate but more time
consuming and thus costly.

Covert behaviors not observable.
Experimental Assessment
Procedures
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Experimental functional analysis See
Chap 22
DATA: Why Bother?
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To Determine whether behavioral treatment is
appropriate.
 Maybe
the behavior isn’t in your area of expertise.
 Maybe
the behavior is not really a problem.
Data can lead to treatment by discovering
controlling environmental variables.
DATA: Why Bother? (cont)
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To see if Treatment is working.
To prompt and/or reinforce the treatment
providers.
Counting behavior may impact its frequency
apart from treatment effects. Reactivity is the
effect of being watched (keeping track of
weight loss/gain, exercise, etc. can be
motivating).
Chapter 21
Direct Behavioral
assessment: What to
Record and How
Characteristics of Behavior to
be Recorded
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Topography
Amount
Rate/frequency.
Frequency graphs. Pg. 271
Cumulative Graphs pg. 273
(If comparing more than one
behavior and/or rate changes are small)
Characteristics of Behavior to
be Recorded (cont.)
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Duration
Intensity (may need instrumentation such as
voice meter).
Stimulus Control What in the environment
PROMPTS the behavior?
Latency between stimulus and response.
Quality just an arbitrary rating along one of the
previously listed quantitative dimensions.
How to Record Behavior
Continuous recording: every instance
 Interval recording
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 Partial
interval recording: maximum one
instance within a specified time interval.
 Whole interval recording: record only if the
behavior persists throughout the entire
interval.

Time-Sampling Recording: intervals are
separated by longer periods of time to
save time in sampling.
Assessing Accuracy of
Observations
Response definition may be vague.
 Observational situation: may be difficult
to detect behavior.
 Observer: may be poorly trained.
 Data Sheets/recording procedures: may
be poorly designed.
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Assessing Accuracy of
Observations (cont.)

Interobserver Reliability (IOR) 80-100%
acceptable
Frequency recordings:
smaller number
larger number
X 100%
Interval recordings:
# of intervals agreed
# intervals either observer recorded a behavior X 100%
Chapter 22
Functional Assessment of
the Causes of Problem
Behavior
What is Functional Analysis?
Examination of the relationship between
behavior and its antecedents and
consequences
 Antecedents
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 eliciting

stimuli
Consequences
 Positive
or negative reinforcement
Types of Assessment
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Questionnaire
 Completed
by those familiar with client
 Reliability issues

Observation
 Observe
what is going on
 Form hypotheses about antecedents and
consequences
Types of Assessment

Functional Analysis
 Systematic
manipulation of environmental
events to experimentally test their role in
behavior maintenance
 Limitations
Infrequent behaviors
 Not applicable in dangerous behaviors
 Expensive and time consuming

Causes of Problem Behavior

Attention From Others – Social Positive
Reinforcement
 Attention
follows behavior
 Individual approaches attention giver prior to
behavior
 Smiling prior to behavior
 Treatment
Give attention at other times
 Reduce attention to behavior
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Causes of Problem Behavior

Self Stimulation – Internal Sensory
Positive Reinforcement
 Continues
doing the behavior because it offers
a desired level of stimulation
 Behavior continues at steady rate
 Treatment:
Increase sensory stimulation
 Reduce stimulation level of behavior
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Causes of Problem Behavior
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Environmental Consequences – External
Sensory Positive Reinforcement
 Behavior
maintained by reinforcing sights and
sounds from the nonsocial external environment
 Behavior continues undiminished even though it
appears to have no social consequences over
numerous occasions
 Treatment:

Sensory reinforcement of a desirable alternate behavior
Causes of Problem Behavior

Escape From Demands – Social Negative
Reinforcement
 Escape
from aversive stimuli
 Problem behavior as a way to escape various
undesirable demands
 Behavior only happens when certain types of
requests are made of the person
 Treatment
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Persist with requests (demands) until compliance
Teach other responses
Program where level of difficulty of requested behavior
starts low and is gradually increased
Causes of Problem Behavior
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Elicited – Respondent
 Some
behavior is elicited rather than
controlled by consequences
 Behavior consistently occurs in a certain
situation or in the presence of certain stimuli
 Behavior seems involuntary
 Treatment

Establishing one or more responses that compete
with problem behavior (counterconditioning)
Causes of Problem Behavior

Medical
 Problem
emerges suddenly and does not seem to
be related to any changes in the individual’s
environment
 Behavioral diagnostics
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Therapist diagnoses the problem after examining
antecedents, consequences, and medical and
nutritional variables as potential causes of problem
behaviors
Develop treatment plan based on diagnosis
 Physician
should be consulted prior to treatment
Guidelines for Conducting
Functional Assessment
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Define the problem behavior
Identify antecedents
Identify consequences
Consider health/medical/personal variables
Form hypothesis based on information collected
Collect data to determine if hypothesis is correct
If possible, do a functional analysis by directly testing the
hypothesis
Design treatment program
If treatment is successful, accept the causal analysis as
confirmed.
If treatment is not successful, redo the functional analysis
Examples of FBA measures
FAST
 FBA Inventory
 ABC chart
 See pg. 295 of text
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Chapter 23
Doing Research in Behavior
Modification
Reversal-Replication (ABAB)
Research Designs
Baseline (A) is followed by treatment (B),
return to baseline (A) condition, and then
treatment again (B)
 Allows for replication of treatment effect
 Replication makes it clearer that treatment
caused change in behavior
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Reversal-Replication (ABAB)
Research Designs
Reversal-Replication (ABAB)
Research Designs
Reversal-Replication (ABAB)
Research Designs
Considerations

Do baseline until pattern is stable and predictable
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May be undesirable to do a reversal (dangerous behaviors)

May be unable to do a reversal if natural reinforcers have already
taken effect (behavioral trapping)
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How many reversals and replications are necessary?
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Less replications if large effects are observed and a lot of previous
research exists in the area
Limitations

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Withdrawal of treatment may not lead to return to baseline
Withdrawal may be undesirable or unethical
Multiple-Baseline Designs
Conduct more than one AB design
concurrently with treatments beginning at
different times
 Useful when reversals cannot be
introduced
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Multiple-Baseline Designs
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Across behaviors
 Baselining
several similar behaviors within an
individual
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Across subjects
 Applying
the same treatment to the same
behavior problems of two or more individuals
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Across situations
 Baselining
one type of behavior for a single
individual in more than one setting
Multiple-Baseline Designs
Changing-Criterion Designs
Change over time the criterion for success
and look for relationship between criteria
changes and behavior change
 Can increase or decrease:

 Frequency
requirements
 Rate requirements
 Duration requirements
 Etc.
Changing-Criterion Designs
Multiple-Baseline Designs (cont.)

Compare effects of two or more treatment
conditions considerably more rapidly than in
ABAB design

Applied at alternating times within the same time period
 Also known as multielement design
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Does not require reversal
Several treatments can be evaluated at the same
time
Disadvantage: treatment effects interaction
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Data typically analyzed without control
groups and statistical techniques used in
other areas of psychology
 Behavior modifiers interested in
understanding and improving the behavior
of individuals, not groups
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Data Analysis and Interpretation
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No control groups or statistics, just visual inspection of
data graphs to draw conclusions.
Number of replications.
Quantitative difference between baseline and treatment
behavior.
Latency of treatment effects.
Number of overlaps baseline and treatment.
Precision of treatment procedures.
Reliability of response measures.
Consistency of findings with existing data and theory.
Practical impact of results.
Consumer satisfaction.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
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Social Validity
 Behavior
modifiers need to socially validate their work
on at least three levels (Wolf, 1978):
 Must examine the extent to which target behaviors
identified for treatment programs are really the
most important for client and society
 Must be concerned with the acceptability to the
client of the particular procedures used
 Must ensure that the consumers are satisfied with
the results
Advantages of Within Subjects
(Single-case, N of 1) Designs
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Repeated measurements vs. Data at single
point in time
Small number of subjects vs. Large number
of subjects
No resistance to control group participation
from subjects
No need for statistical assumptions of
normal distribution of DV and random
selection of subjects from population