FBA - Intro and Informant Assessment Flashcards
What are the two broad categories of functional assessment methods?
Direct methods; Indirect methods
What are direct methods?
Involves directly observing behaviour
What are indirect methods?
Doesn’t involve direct observation e.g. questionnaires/interviews
What is another term for indirect assessment?
Informant assessment
What are the two types of direct assessment?
Descriptive assessment; Experimental functional analysis
Informant assessment and descriptive assessment enable us to…, but do not…
form a hypothesis about causes of behaviour; allow us to say for definite what causes behaviour
Define informant assessment
Indirect methods used to form hypothesis of behaviour by asking questions of those who know the client
Who is a suitable person to speak to in informant assessment?
Anyone who knows the person and can help to give further insight into behaviour
What is the most common form of informant assessment strategy?
Interviews
What three things can interviews potentially tell you?
specify the problem behaviours and the conditions in which they occur; identify replacement behaviours; identify previous interventions
Name four other indirect assessment strategies
Rating scales, records review, checklists and questionnaires
Give two examples of rating scales/questionnaires
MAS/FAST
What does MAS stand for?
Motivation Assessment Scale
What does FAST stand for?
Functional Analysis Screening Tool
What does records review involve?
Looking at archival records (e.g. medical, intervention plans, incident reports) that might help identify important variables
Informant assessments provide info observations do not. Give an examples
Historical variables; broader perspective on setting events; previous conditions/interventions
When conducting interviews, only ask…
questions that are relevant to behaviour
You should never…
discuss results of interview with anyone except those involved in implementing treatment
Once you’ve collected data you should…
look for patterns of responding
Give an advantage of using informant assessment
cheap and easy to carry out
Give a limitation to informant assessment
Results can be unreliable and inconsistent
