lecture 7 behavioral assessment

8/13/2019 Lecture 7 Behavioral Assessment

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Behavioral Assessment


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Types of behavioral assessment

Interviews: clinician assesses behavior by askingquestions and collecting information on the

persons verbal and nonverbal responses.

Behavioral observation: psychologist collects

verbal and nonverbal information about the

person.

usually there is no verbal interaction between theobserver and the subject.


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Methodological Issues

Reactivity to measurement: the phenomenon inwhich a persons behavior changes by the mere

fact that the behavior is being observed.

Selection and training of observers. One must

select observers that are going to be good at

collecting information. This includes knowledge

about the behaviors being observed, and beingable to rate these behaviors reliably.


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Behavioral observations

Appearance physical description

dress

hygiene


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Behavior and attitude compliance

activity level

appropriateness of activity


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Verbal behavior expressive language (e.g., clarity, vocabulary,

appropriateness)

receptive language (e.g., tracking, understanding) presence of bizarre language (e.g., neologisms,

echolalia, perseverations)


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Mood and affect current mood

range of affect

Intensity appropriateness


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Cognitive processes thought process (e.g., flow of ideas, organization)

thought content (e.g., delusions, obsessions, etc)

attention orientation & memory (person, place, and time)

brief impression of intellect and insight/judgment


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Behavioral assessment

Behavioral assessment tends to be restricted tosamples of observable behavior.

The best known type of behavioral assessment

was established by B.F. Skinner in the 1950s andit is known as functional analysis.


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Functional analysis

Observation of environmental events that serveto maintain behavior (usually problem behavior).

To be a functional analysis, the observations

must be conducted within an experimental design(e.g., control of the environment and

reinforcements).


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Functional analysis

The main purpose of functional analysis is to 1. identify the stimuli that elicit the target behavior

2. determine the consequences that follow


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Functional analysis

In most cases a functional analysis involveshypothesis testing and it is conducted by

alternating control and treatment conditions (i.e.,

reversal, ABAB) to demonstrate that the effectsare consistent.

The assessment usually continues until a

consistent pattern of behavior occurs.


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Functional analysis

This type of behavioral analysis is frequentlyused with individuals whose communication

skills are not well developed (e.g., children,

individuals with developmental disabilities).

Example of problem behavior in a toddler:


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Example: control condition

This condition consists of a "free play" conditionin which the child has continuous access to toys

and attention and no demands are presented.

During this condition, motivation to engage inproblem behavior tends to be quite low and

problem behavior is usually absent.


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Example: test condition

During this condition, some reinforcement ismanipulated (e.g., access to toys, attention, etc)

either through positive reinforcement (a.k.a.

"gain" function) or negative reinforcement (a.k.a."escape" function).


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test of "gain" function

Antecedent Behavior Consequence

parent ignores child

problem behavior

parent attends to child


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test of "escape" function

AntecedentBehavior Consequence

demand presented

problem behavior

demand removed


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S-O-R-C

Another method of behavioral analysis is the S-O-R-Cmodel, which is similar to functional analysis with one

additional element (organismic variables).

S - Stimulus or antecedent conditions that bring on the

problematic behavior.

O - Organismic variables related to the problem behavior

(e.g., diatheses, stressors, emotional and cognitive variables)

R - Response or problematic behavior

C - Consequences of the problematic behavior


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Additional methods of

behavioral assessment

Self-report/self-monitoring

Clinical Interview

Inventories and Checklists

Direct observation

Naturalistic

Controlled

Self-monitoring

lecture 7 behavioral assessment

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