Chapter 12: Decreasing Problem Behaviours Flashcards
In several sentences, describe the three steps of the strategy followed by Connie Wanlin to decrease off-task practice behaviours of the speed skaters.
Skaters agreed to participate in a goal-setting, self-monitoring, and performance feedback project. Skaters were encouraged to set written weekly goals for the number of laps skated and drills completed, and to use their weekly goals to set written daily practice goals for each behaviour. They recorded their daily performance in their log books, evaluated their performance at the end of each practice, and met with Connie once per week to discuss their progress and receive feedback.
Define stimulus control. How was stimulus control involved in the program with speed skaters developed by Connie Wanlin?
The term stimulus control refers to the degree of correlation between a stimulus and a behaviour. Stimulus control occurred in her program as they developed a relationship between increased goal-setting, self-monitoring, and performance feedback and an increase in performance.
In a sentence or two each, describe five possible causes of problem behaviours shown by young athletes at practices.
1) Some problem behaviours stem from a lack of understanding by young athletes as to what is expected of them at practice.
2) Some problem behaviours may occur at practice because they are immediately followed by natural reinforcers (including peer interaction), while the desirable alternative behaviours do not lead to immediate reinforcers.
3) In some cases, athletes may show problem behaviours because they don’t have the skills to earn rewards for skilled athletic performance, and they want to gain attention somehow.
4) Still other problem behaviours may stem from the emotional side-effects of operant extinction, like when reinforcers are withheld.
5) Still other problem behaviours may stem from the interpersonal interactions of the athletes away from the athletic environment, like tough situations at home or in relationships.
For a sport with which you are familiar, list at least five desirable behaviours and three undesirable behaviours for young athletes at a typical practice.
Desirable: 1) Staying focused on what the coach is saying. 2) Encouraging others to work hard at certain drills. 3) Arriving on time. 4) Completing each drill to the best of their ability and as hard as they can. 5) Using proper form when shooting the basketball.
Undesirable:
1) Fooling around during drills.
2) Coming unprepared without gym clothes or shoes.
3) Talking to each other while the coach is speaking.
Briefly describe four steps that a coach might take at the beginning to a season, regarding rules and consequences, to minimize the chances of problem behaviours occurring in the first place.
1) Identify reasonable rules concerning desirable and undesirable behaviours of athletes.
2) Identify consequences for rule violations.
3) Obtain a commitment from the athletes to follow the rules.
4) Monitor desirable and undesirable behaviour during the season, and provide feedback.
These steps are big in minimizing the chances of problem behaviours occurring.
What were three positive outcomes of McKenzie and Rushall’s use of the program boards at swimming practices?
1) When the distances swum before the program boards were compared with the distances swum after the program boards were introduced, there was an average increase for all swimmers of 27%.
2) Use of the program boards allowed swimmers to continue with practice activities on an independent basis; they did not have to wait at the end of the pool for instructions from coaches. This freed the coaches to monitor swimming skills, to provide more frequent feedback on individual strokes, and to praise swimmers for stroke performance and for completing activities. In other words, coaches were better able to function as effective behaviour modifiers.
3) Most of the swimmers preferred to use the program boards.
State three strategies for decreasing problem behaviours of athletes at competitions.
1) Use monitoring, charting, and public posting to decrease problem behaviours.
2) Post signs to prompt desirable alternative behaviour.
3) Teach athletes to use self-reinforcement instead of self-criticism.
Briefly describe the educational sign prompting program applied by Yu and Martin to increase ball mark repairing by golfers. Does their program rely on natural reinforcers or deliberately managed reinforcers? Justify your choice.
Dickie Yu introduced an educational sign prompt near the entrance of the clubhouse. The sign contained an explanation of, and photographs of, some unrepaired ball marks, a description of how to repair ball marks as depicted in photographs, and a request for golfers to help repair goal marks. The educational sign prompting decreased the number of unrepaired ball marks on putting greens by approximately 37%. This program relied on deliberately managed reinforcers as the educational sign prompt influenced golfers to repair ball marks.
Describe a plausible example of self-reinforcement that might be used by an athlete that is not in this chapter.
A plausible example of self-reinforcement is an athlete giving himself a self-talk. After each pass a soccer player could say to himself, “Great pass, nice strength on that!”
Briefly describe the three approaches to gathering information during a functional assessment.
1) One approach is to conduct an interview and/or questionnaire assessment of the people familiar with the client.
2) Perform an observational or descriptive assessment in which an observer carefully observes and describes the apparent antecedents and immediate consequences of the problem behaviour of the individual as it occurs in natural settings.
3) Conduct a functional analysis, which is the systematic manipulation of environmental events to experimentally test their roles as antecedents or consequences in controlling or maintaining specific problem behaviours.
