How to Identify, Define, & and Assess Behavior

Chapter 3

How to Identify, Define, & and Assess Behavior

• Identifying the goal of the program• Defining the target behavior• Conducting observations

Identifying the Goal of the Program

• Behavior analysis unique among psychological approaches– emphasis and development of assessment

methods – used as part of treatment

Identifying the Goal of a Program

• Guidelines– Determined by societal standards– Regardless of source of intervention

(behavioral or other)

What makes a behavior worthy of intervention?

• Impairment• Illegal behaviors• Concern to individual or significant others• Preventive

What makes a behavior worthy of intervention?

• Impairment– Extent to which everyday functioning is

impeded by a particular problem or set of behaviors

– Meet role demands?• Home, school, work, socially• No restrictions

Impairment

• Is a criterion for psychiatric disorders– Depression– Schizophrenia– AD/HD

• Impairment does not necessarily mean a person will meet criteria for psychiatric dx

Illegal

• DUI• Skipping school• May not cause impairment

Concern to themselves or others

• Social skills• Toilet training• Relevance to future functioning?

Prevention

• Early intervention– Pre-academic behavior

• Behaviors that promote safety or health– Breast self-exam– Proper handling of chemicals

Some Criteria for Identifying Goals of Intervention Programs

• Behaviors that bring clients to normative levels of functioning in relation to their peers

• Behaviors that are dangerous to self or others

• Behaviors that decrease risk

Interaction with peers; exercise and activity of elderly persons

SIB; fighting at school, spouse abuse

Safe sex, not smoking, wearing seat belts

Criteria, cont.• Behaviors that affect

adaptive functioning

• Behaviors that can lead to other positive changes

• Behaviors that reduce felt problems of people with whom client is in contact

• Social skills; not attending school or work

• Increasing pro-social speech; taking medication as prescribed

• Tantrums; poor marital communication

Goals

• Increase desirable behavior• Decrease undesirable behavior• Even if goal is to reduce undesirable

behavior, focus of program can be on training adaptive alternatives or positive behaviors

Goals

• Important to state goals in positive terms even if the goals is to reduce a behavior problem

• Positive opposites

Positive opposites are those adaptive behaviors that denote how the individual is to behave

instead of engaging in the maladaptive behavior.

Positive Opposite

• Always helpful to add a second goal identifying the positive opposite

• Be concrete

Example: Reduce tantrums

• Positive opposites:– Walk away from provoking situation– Asking for help from an adult– Suggesting compromises

Considerations: Contexts

• Context in which the behavior occurs• Stimulus control• Antecedent events and situational cues

Considerations: Consequence

• Develop conditioned reinforcers• Pair neutral stimuli (praise) with primary

reinforcers (food)

Considerations

• What goal should take priority?• Address contextual issues (environment)

Class Activity

• With a partner, develop a one to two sentence scenario that identifies person and a problem behavior

• Based on your scenario– Identify a goal for a target behavior (problem)

and – Identify a positive opposite for this problem

and identify a goal for that behavior

Self Control ProjectTASK ANALYSIS

1. Select a problem area. This can be related to a behavioral excess or deficit.2. Complete a narrative (ABC) recording in a situation where the behavior occurs or

could occur.3. From the narrative recording and other observations, develop a functional analysis

of contingencies maintaining the problem behavior. Also, develop a functional analysis for the positive opposite behavior. I WILL PROVIDE COACHING ON THIS. Complete a written summary of the functional analyses, including contingency diagrams.

4. Turn in narrative recording and functional analysis on October 8.5. Develop goals for the project6. Write operational definitions for the behavior problem and the positive opposite and

design a data sheet to record these behaviors. 7. Turn in target behavior and data sheet on October 15.8. Collect at least 1 week of baseline data before beginning intervention.9. Design intervention that addresses problem behavior and the positive opposite

behavior. Identify the type of intervention design you will use (AB, ABAB, Multiple Baseline across Settings or Behaviors). I would prefer you use something more than a simple AB design.

10. Implement intervention. Continue to collect data.11. Prepare poster for in class poster session. (see task analysis for poster preparation)

Defining behavior

• Begin with general domain: TANTRUMS

• Then identify a specific definition that permits assessment

Defining the target behavior

• What are the criteria?– Objectivity – Clarity– Completeness

Objectivity

• The measure refers to observable characteristics of the behavior or to events in the environment that can be observed

• EXAMPLES– The number of times a child hits, kicks, talks

out of turn, asks a question, – Number of dishes in the dishwasher, number

of dirty dishes in the sink, number of cigarettes in the ashtray, number of questions answered

Clarity

• A definition is so unambiguous that it could be read, repeated, and paraphrased by an observer or someone initially unfamiliar with measure. Little explanation is needed to begin actual observation.

• EXAMPLE: Hitting includes anytime the child’s elbow, forearm, or hand strikes another person or object

Completeness

• Delineation of the boundary conditions so that the responses to be included and excluded are enumerated.– Example: Not included in hitting is incidental

contact with others when walking in the hall or giving high fives when greeting or congratulating self or others

Operational Definitions

• Defining a concept on the basis of the specific operations used for assessment

• In behavior analysis, typically use direct observation of overt behavior

• Ex. = concept of tantrums– Parents can tell about them – too far removed– Rather: observe them, see where they occur,

under what circumstances, and whether there is change in response to intervention

Measures

• Paper-pencil measures• Interviews• Reports from others• Physiological measures• DIRECT OBSERVATION

Operational Definition of Concept of Depression?

• Use multiple sources– Beck Depression Inventory score– Physiological measures of arousal– Self report of depression– Nonverbal facial expression that suggests

depressed mood– Direct signs of depression – crying, spending

time in bed, avoiding work and social situations

Other Examples of Concepts

• Hyper• Destructive• Aggressive• Self-injurious• ????

Class Activity

• Select a behavior and write an operational definition that could be used to do observational assessment

Check

• Does your definition meet these criteria?

• Clarity• Objectivity

• Completeness• Explain

Task Analysis

• Goal of program to develop a complete set or sequence of behaviors?– Concretely describe (analyze) the sequence

Task Analysis

• Definition:• A way of proceeding from the general goal

of the program to a number of small, trainable, and highly concrete tasks

• Each component behavior of a task analysis is called a step

How to write a task analysis

• Identify the desired behaviors– By observing those who can perform the task

well– Solicit input of experts

When writing a task analysis

• Specify the behaviors in small, trainable units

• No firm rules about the size of the unit• Individualize!

Changing oil in a car

• Steps?

Remediating kitchen hazards

• Grease on stove• Etc.

Tying a bow

• Steps?

Ordering a pizza

• Steps

Washing clothes in a washing machine

• Steps?

Class Activity

• Write an 8-10 step task analysis for a behavioral sequence– Purchasing 1 item in a store– Writing a check– Balancing a checkbook– Making scrambled eggs– Packing a gym bag– Hand washing– Putting on a band aid

Task Complexity

• Many small units grouped into one step of a task analysis

• Vs.• Many delineated steps

How many steps?

• Decision based upon:– Complexity of the goal– Baseline level of behavior– Speed with which new behavior is acquired

Assessment

• Next step after precise definition of behavior

Assessment

• Essential (2 REASONS)– Identifies the extent to which the target

behavior is performed before beginning the program (BASELINE or OPERANT RATE)

– Does behavior change after program is implemented?

• Compare baseline rates to rates following program implementation

Rely on judgment?

• Distortion of what has actually happened

Judgment

• Slippery slope• Influences (such as psychological state of

person doing the judging) bias reports over and above what has actually taken place

Solution

• Direct observation

Advantages of direct observation

• More direct measure of the level or amount of the target behavior

• Judgment may still play a role

Direct observation

• Strive to minimize judgment• Developing the measure of the behavior

helps to minimize judgment– Task analysis– Objective, clear, complete definitions

• Focus on OVERT behavior

Direct observation

• Provides information about whether a program is working

• Used as a basis for making decisions about whether or not to change the program procedures

Question?

• Is all judgment or inference removed if we use direct observation?

Strategies of Assessment

• Assessment of the target behavior• Determine effect of intervention strategy

Different Types of Measures

• Frequency• Discrete categorization• Interval recording• Amount of time (duration & latency)• Intensity• Number of persons

Frequency

• Useful when the target response is discrete and when it takes a relatively constant amount of time each time it is performed

• Observe for constant amount of time or use rate measure

• # of responses / # of minutes

Discrete Categorization

• Classify responses• Correct/incorrect; performed/not

performed; appropriate/inappropriate• Especially useful in measuring whether

several different behaviors have occurred• EXAMPLE: checklists

Interval Recording

• Behavior is observed for a single block of time • The time block is subdivided into shorter

intervals• Record whether behavior occurred or not during

the interval, but do not count all occurrence in the interval

• Whole interval vs. partial interval• Variation: time sampling – record at different

times rather than in a single block of time

Amount of Time

• Duration – amount of time the response is performed

• Latency – how long it takes the person to begin the response from the time that a cue is provided

Intensity

• Magnitude, strength, amplitude, force, or effort of the response

• Can use discrete categorization• EXAMPLE: tantrum – identify several

behaviors and record yes/no whether each of the behaviors occurred or not

Number of Persons

• Number of individuals are counted• Prevalence

– How many people at a particular point in time show a particular problem

Other Strategies

• Weight in pounds• Number of cigarettes smoked• Number of ounces of alcohol consumed• Blood pressure• Records of teenage crime• Self reports

Selection of Assessment Strategy

• I will coach you on your selection of a recording method

• You will begin by selecting the method that best matches your problem

• I will provide feedback about your choice and make suggestions as needed

Conditions of Observation

• Obtrusive – people being observed may react to observer’s presence– Minimize by avoiding interaction, letting

people adapt• Observer drift

– Periodic retraining, feedback• Observer expectations may influence their

recordings

Reliability of Assessment

• Interobserver agreement– Consistency of assessment – lack of

consistency may mask differences– Minimizes observer bias– Agreement reflects whether the target

behavior is well-defined

Conducting Checks of Agreement

• Ensure observers work independently without access to one another’s recording sheets

• Supervise observers carefully during a reliability check

• Avoid conveying expectation to observers• Consider conducting periodic retraining sessions• Have people other than observers calculate

reliability

Estimating Agreement

• Frequency measures• Form a fraction – smaller frequency

divided by larger

Interobserver Agreement

• Interval recording• Divide the number of intervals in which

both observers mark the behavior as occurring (agreements) by the number of agreements plus the number of intervals in which one observer scored the behavior and the other did not (disagreements) and multiplying by 100

Interobserver Agreement =

# of Agreements# of Agreements + # of

Disagreements

X 100

Data analysis?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10IIIIIIIIII

I I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

II IIIIIIIIIIII

I I I I

Discrete occurrences…

# of occurrences

% of intervals

Data analysis?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10___ _ _ _

Duration

# of occurrences

% of intervals –

whole interval vs. partial interval vs. time sampling

Conclusion

• Target behavior assessment– Rudimentary– Precondition for effective intervention and

evaluation of behavior-change programs• This chapter – how to ID, define, and

assess… much more to come!!!!