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Behavioral Assessment

Behavioral Assessment. Types of behavioral assessment. Interviews: clinician assesses behavior by asking questions and collecting information on the person’s verbal and nonverbal responses. Behavioral observation: psychologist collects verbal and nonverbal information about the person.

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Behavioral Assessment

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  1. Behavioral Assessment

  2. Types of behavioral assessment • Interviews: clinician assesses behavior by asking questions and collecting information on the person’s verbal and nonverbal responses. • Behavioral observation: psychologist collects verbal and nonverbal information about the person. • usually there is no verbal interaction between the observer and the subject.

  3. Methodological Issues • Reactivity to measurement: the phenomenon in which a person’s behavior changes by the mere fact that the behavior is being observed. • Selection and training of observers. One must select observers that are going to be good at collecting information. This includes knowledge about the behaviors being observed, and being able to rate these behaviors reliably.

  4. Behavioral observations • Appearance • physical description • dress • hygiene

  5. Behavioral observations • Behavior and attitude • compliance • activity level • appropriateness of activity

  6. Behavioral observations • Verbal behavior • expressive language (e.g., clarity, vocabulary, appropriateness) • receptive language (e.g., tracking, understanding) • presence of bizarre language (e.g., neologisms, echolalia, perseverations)

  7. Behavioral observations • Mood and affect • current mood • range of affect • Intensity • appropriateness

  8. Behavioral observations • Cognitive processes • thought process (e.g., flow of ideas, organization) • thought content (e.g., delusions, obsessions, etc) • attention • orientation & memory (person, place, and time) • brief impression of intellect and insight/judgment

  9. Behavioral assessment • Behavioral assessment tends to be restricted to samples of observable behavior. • The best known type of behavioral assessment was established by B.F. Skinner in the 1950s and it is known as functional analysis.

  10. Functional analysis • Observation of environmental events that serve to maintain behavior (usually problem behavior). • To be a functional analysis, the observations must be conducted within an experimental design (e.g., control of the environment and reinforcements).

  11. Functional analysis • The main purpose of functional analysis is to • 1. identify the stimuli that elicit the target behavior • 2. determine the consequences that follow

  12. Functional analysis • In most cases a functional analysis involves hypothesis testing and it is conducted by alternating control and treatment conditions (i.e., reversal, ABAB) to demonstrate that the effects are consistent. • The assessment usually continues until a consistent pattern of behavior occurs.

  13. Functional analysis • This type of behavioral analysis is frequently used with individuals whose communication skills are not well developed (e.g., children, individuals with developmental disabilities). • Example of problem behavior in a toddler:

  14. Example: control condition • This condition consists of a "free play" condition in which the child has continuous access to toys and attention and no demands are presented. During this condition, motivation to engage in problem behavior tends to be quite low and problem behavior is usually absent.

  15. Example: test condition • During this condition, some reinforcement is manipulated (e.g., access to toys, attention, etc) either through positive reinforcement (a.k.a. "gain" function) or negative reinforcement (a.k.a. "escape" function).

  16. Example: test condition • test of "gain" function Antecedent  Behavior  Consequence parent ignores child  problem behavior  parent attends to child

  17. Example: test condition • test of "escape" function Antecedent  Behavior  Consequence demand presented  problem behavior  demand removed

  18. S-O-R-C • Another method of behavioral analysis is the S-O-R-C model, which is similar to functional analysis with one additional element (organismic variables). • S - Stimulus or antecedent conditions that bring on the problematic behavior. • O - Organismic variables related to the problem behavior (e.g., diatheses, stressors, emotional and cognitive variables) • R - Response or problematic behavior • C - Consequences of the problematic behavior

  19. Additional methods of behavioral assessment • Self-report/self-monitoring • Clinical Interview • Inventories and Checklists • Direct observation • Naturalistic • Controlled • Self-monitoring

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