FBA - Descriptive Assessment Flashcards
Define descriptive assessment
Direct observation of person’s behaviour in natural environment
What is the goal of descriptive assessment?
To identify the env. variables that cause/maintain behaviour
In descriptive assessment, behaviours are recorded…
as they occur
Give two ways of collecting descriptive assessment data
ABC analyses; Scatterplots
How does ABC analysis work?
Record the antecedents and consequences around behaviours. More it occurs, more chance these are functionally related
ABC analysis should be conducted…
across several observations of behaviour, preferably across several different days
Once you’ve collected enough data…
begin looking for patterns of antecedents and consequences surrounding behaviour
ABC analysis is also called
ABC narrative recording
Using data from ABC analyses you will (hopefully)…
be able to form a research hypothesis
In ABC analyses you must remember to record ONLY…
environmental events and overt behaviours
What are scatterplots?
Tables of intervals wherein behaviours are marked off as they occur in each interval
What do scatterplots reveal?
Temporal patterns of behaviour
Scatterplots help identify…
whether there are particular times the behaviour occurs; when might be the best time to observe behaviour
Give a limitation to using descriptive assessment
Doesn’t establish cause and effect - simply establishes correlations to build a hypothesis
