Chapter 3 Flashcards
Selecting and Defining Target Behaviors
ABC Recording (also anecdotal observation)
A form of direct, continuous observation in which the observer records a descriptive, temporally sequenced account of all behavior of interest and the antecedent conditions and consequences for those behaviors as those events occur in the client’s natural environment.
Behavior Checklist
A checklist that provides descriptions of specific skills (usually in hierarchical order) and the conditions under which each skill should be observed.
Behavioral Assessment
A form of assessment that involves a full range of inquiry methods (observation, interview, testing, and the systematic manipulation of antecedent or consequence variables) to identify probable antecedent and consequent controlling variables. Behavioral assessment is designed to discover resources, assets, significant others, competing contingencies, maintenance and generality factors, and possible reinforces and/or punishers that surround the potential target behavior.
Behavioral Cusp
A behavior that has sudden and dramatic consequences that ex-tend well beyond the idiosyncratic change itself because it expos-es the person to new environments, reinforcers, contingencies, responses, and stimulus controls.
Ecological Assessment
An assessment protocol that acknowledges complex interrelationships between environment and behavior. An ecological assessment is a method for obtaining data across multiple settings and persons
Function-Based Definition
Designates responses as members of the targeted response class solely in terms of their common effect on the environment.
Habitation
A decrease in responsiveness to repeated presentations of a stimulus; most often used to describe a reduction of respondent behavior as a function of repeated presentation of the eliciting stimulus over a short span of time; some researchers suggest that the concept also applies to within-session changes in operant behavior.
Normalization
As a philosophy and principle, the belief that people with disabilities should, to the maximum extent possible, be physically and socially integrated into the mainstream of society regardless of the degree or type of disability. As an approach to intervention, the use of progressively more typical settings and procedures “to establish and/or maintain personal behaviors which are as culturally normal as possible.
Pivotal Behavior
A behavior that, when learned, produces corresponding modifications or covariation in other untrained behaviors.
Reactivity
Effects of an observation and measurement procedure on the behavior being measured. Reactivity is most likely when measurement procedures are obtrusive, especially if the person being observed is aware of the observer’s presence and purpose.
Relevance of Behavior Rule
Holds that only behaviors likely to produce reinforcement in the person’s natural environment should be targeted for change.
Social Validity
Refers to the extent to which target behaviors are appropriate, intervention procedures are acceptable, and important and significant changes in target and collateral behaviors are produced.
Target Behavior
The response class selected for intervention; can be defined either functionally or topographical.
Topography-Based Definition
Defines instances of the targeted response class by the shape or form of the behavior.
