Behavioral Assessment

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Behavioral Assessment
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Types of behavioral assessment

• Interviews clinician assesses behavior by asking
  questions and collecting information on the
  persons 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.

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Methodological Issues

• Reactivity to measurement the phenomenon in
  which a persons 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.

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Behavioral observations

• Appearance
• physical description
• dress
• hygiene

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Behavioral observations

• Behavior and attitude
• compliance
• activity level
• appropriateness of activity

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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)

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Behavioral observations

• Mood and affect
• current mood
• range of affect
• Intensity
• appropriateness

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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

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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.

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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).

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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).

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Example test condition

• test of "gain" function
• Antecedent ? Behavior ? Consequence
• parent ignores child ?
• problem behavior ?
• parent attends to child

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Example test condition

• test of "escape" function
• Antecedent ? Behavior ? Consequence
• demand presented ?
• problem behavior ?
• demand removed

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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

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Additional methods of behavioral assessment

• Self-report/self-monitoring
• Clinical Interview
• Inventories and Checklists
• Direct observation
• Naturalistic
• Controlled
• Self-monitoring