FRHD 3150 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Guided Imagery, Workplace Violence, Generalized Anxiety Disorder
1 Jun 2018
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Week 9
Behavioural Assessment
• Collection and analysis of information to identify and describe target behaviour, identify
possible antecedents, select appropriate strategies, and evaluate
Phases
• Intake/screening
o Collect general information, ensure appropriateness
o Inform client of policies
o Screen for presence of crisis condition
▪ Abuse, suicide risk
o Diagnose client to standardized categories of mental disorder
o Information on which behaviours should be assessed
• Preprogram assessment
o Baseline
o Assess behaviour to determine level prior to treatment
• Treatment
o Program to change behaviour
• Follow up
o Determine whether the improvements achieved during treatment are maintained
Sources of Information
• Indirect assessment
• Interview
• Questionnaires
• Role-playing
• Information from other professionals
• Direct assessment
Characteristics of Behaviour
• Topography of behaviour
o Movements involved in making the behaviour
o Picture prompts
• Amount
o Frequency
o Duration
• Intensity
• Stimulus control
o Degree of correlation between stimulus and response
• Latency
• Quality
Recording
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• Continuous
o Every instance during a given time
• Interval
o Logs behaviour as occurring or not occurring
o Shorts intervals of equal duration
o Partial interval
▪ Record target behaviour a maximum of once per interval
o Whole interval
▪ Denotes behaviour as occurring only if it persists through the whole interval
• Time-sampling
o Occurring or not occurring
o Brief observation intervals separated from longer periods of time
• Assess accuracy of recording
o Inter-rater reliability
Very Preliminary: Research
• Dependent variable is often behaviour
• Independent validity
o Quality of methods, rules out bias or competing explanations
• External validity
o Generalizability
Common Research Designs for Practice
• Reverse replication (ABAB)
o Baseline (A) treatment (B)
o Also been called withdrawal design
▪ Treatment is withdrawn during second baseline
• Multiple baseline
o Across-behaviours design
▪ Estalishig aselies for to or ore of a idiidual’s ehaiours folloed
introducing the treatment sequentially across the behaviours
o Across-situations design
▪ Establishing baselines for a behaviour of an individual across two or more
situations concurrently followed by the introduction of the treatment to the
behaviour sequentially across the situations
o Across-people design
▪ Establishing baselines for a specific behaviour across two or more people
concurrently followed by the introduction of the treatment sequentially to each
person
• The Changing-Criterion Design
o Cotrol that a treatet has o a idiidual’s ehaiour is ealuated itroduig
successive changes in the behavioural criterion
• Altering-Treatments Design
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o Altering two or more treatment conditions to assess their effects on a single behaviour
of a single individual
Week 10
Functional Assessment
• Set of information gathering strategies to examine what precedes the target behaviour, what
follows it
• Attempt to identify patterns
• Questionnaire assessment
• Observational assessment
Functional analysis
• Systematic manipulation of environmental events to experimentally test their role as
antecedents or consequences in controlling and maintaining specific problem behaviours
• Directly assesses the effects of potential controlling variables on the problem behaviour
• Implications
o Form of self-injurious behaviour may be very similar from one individual to another, but
the function can be different
• Limitations
o Time
o Cannot be applied to extremely dangerous behaviours
o Behaviours that occur less than once per day or week can take a lot of time to get
sufficient data to draw conclusions
Factors Associated with Problem Behaviours
• Positive reinforcement
o Social positive reinforcement
▪ Attention reliably follows the behaviour
▪ Whether individual looks at or approaches a caregiver before engaging in the
behaviour
▪ Whether individual smiles before engaging in behaviour
o Self-stimulatory
▪ Behaviour is automatically reinforcing without producing any consequences that
another person can control or detect
o Non-social external sensory positive reinforcement
▪ When an individual continues the behaviour over numerous occasions even
though it appears to have no social consequences
▪ Child throwing toy because they like the loud noise of it hitting something
• Negative reinforcement
o Social negative reinforcement
▪ An individual engages in the behaviours only when certain types of demands or
requests are made
o Self-stimulatory negative reinforcement
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Behavioural assessment: collection and analysis of information to identify and describe target behaviour, identify possible antecedents, select appropriate strategies, and evaluate. Inform client of policies: screen for presence of crisis condition, abuse, suicide risk, diagnose client to standardized categories of mental disorder. Information on which behaviours should be assessed: preprogram assessment, baseline, assess behaviour to determine level prior to treatment, treatment, program to change behaviour, follow up, determine whether the improvements achieved during treatment are maintained. Characteristics of behaviour: topography of behaviour, movements involved in making the behaviour, picture prompts, amount, frequency, duration. Intensity: stimulus control, degree of correlation between stimulus and response. Recording: continuous, every instance during a given time. Very preliminary: research: dependent variable is often behaviour. Independent validity: quality of methods, rules out bias or competing explanations, external validity, generalizability. Functional assessment: set of information gathering strategies to examine what precedes the target behaviour, what follows it, attempt to identify patterns, questionnaire assessment, observational assessment.
