605 pt. 1Behavior Interventions Flashcards
In the article on Treatment Acceptability, Miltenberger (1990) quoted Kazdin and Wolf who “suggested that the term social validity refer to the”:
social significance of the target behavior and the appropriateness or the acceptability of the treatment procedure
Acceptability refers to the judgments about the treatment procedures by:
nonprofessionals, lay persons, clients, and other potential consumers of treatments
Analogue research is conducted by having researchers present the raters with a written case description and then the rater completes an acceptability rating scale (often a Likert scale) to rate the treatment as it applies to the problem behavior. Although this type of research takes less time it may lack:
ecological validity
Several factors may influence acceptability among rates. The Miltenberger article stated that the following variables may influence treatment acceptability:
setting an individual works in, behavioral v. developmental orientation of staff, income and race of parents, age of rater - child or parent
Reimers and Wacker (1988) demonstrated that the variables of effectiveness and compliance with a procedure are associated with:
treatment acceptability/social validity of the procedure
In Iqbal (2002) ethical issues were involved in the implementation of a differential reinforcement of inappropriate behavior program for the treatment of social isolation and ritualistic behavior in an individual with intellectual disabilities. The author identifies the following ethical considerations associated a DRI program which incorporates removal of the patient’s meal after a certain amount of time.
-many staff felt it was ethically wrong to withdraw food, therefore the intervention was inconsistently implemented
-there was a lack of informed consent from the subject since he did not understand the issues in question, nor the treatment objectives
-removal of the food resulted in aggression and the need for restraint and seclusion
-all of the above
Ethics help behavior analysts address three basic questions. Which question below is NOT one of the three basic questions designed to help behavior analysts?
How do I increase my client base?
Section 2 of the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts addresses which of the following areas?
Responsibility in Practice
Obtaining informed consent prior to providing treatment is an ethical obligation associated with the role of the behavior analyst. This informed consent must meet the requirements of three essential components. They are:
information, capacity and voluntariness
Elizabeth is a BCBA providing home services for a pre-school student with autism. His parents do not have family who are able to care for him as a result of his significant behavioral challenges. The parents ask Elizabeth if she would consider babysitting so that they could have a night out. What guidance does the Ethics Code give to Elizabeth?
The code clearly states that as a behavior analyst you must guard against multiple relationships and conflicts of interest
Brodhead (2015) states that it is recommended that BCBA’s collaborate with related services professionals, when applicable. Brodhead states this is desirable because it can not only enhance treatment outcomes, but also contribute to what?
treatment fidelity
Interventions are selected based on a combination of factors including and are directly linked to:
Functional Assessments
Jessica is collecting data on a TPRA data sheet of one of her staff. The staff made 3 learn unit errors out of 20 learn units and took 14 minutes to implement the program. Calculate the staff member’s correct rate per minute. In other words, how many correct learn units did the staff member engage in per minute?
1.2 correct / minute
Janaya is overseeing a clients home programming and every week that she co-visits with the client’s direct service staff, she collects some IOA data as well as treatment integrity data. Last week, when Janaya was out with the client, she got a report from one of the direct staff that the client had ‘mastered’ a particular program. After Janaya collected and analyzed treatment integrity data on this program, she realized that the staff was not implementing the intervention correctly and was, in fact, giving the answer away while she was running the program. This is called what?
false positive
The strongest interventions are supported by what type of evidence?
Evidence of efficacy and effectiveness
Brianna has verbally proposed an intervention to a client’s treatment team (parents, teachers and specialists). Afterward, she asked them to fill out a Pre-Intervention Rating Form. The form has 15 statements, each followed by a Likert scale (range of points 1 - 6, per item). A rating of 1 point, indicates that the rater strongly disagrees with the acceptability statement and a rating of 6 points, indicates that the rater strongly agrees with the acceptability statement. Brianna got rating forms back from all 5 raters. The average acceptability rating score was 30. Brianna should:
Reassess the intervention proposed
Frida is a BCBA who has been transitioned on to a case of a client who engages in severe problem behavior. The client is a 17-year old male who resides at home with his parents and is able to adequately communicate his wants and needs (mand), can talk about his environment (tacts), and engages in conversations (intraverbals). Frida has noticed that the former therapist on the case had implemented a treatment procedure that was unsuccessful prior to his departure and when Frieda asked the family, including the client, about this intervention, they all expressed that the previous therapist, “Didn’t listen to us when we told him we didn’t understand. He just kept doing it and telling us to do it.”
First, identify if there has been an ethical violation by the previous therapist and then identify a description of the issue.
yes there has been an ethical violation of not including the client and stakeholders in treatment decisions
The use of treatment integrity tools (e.g. TPRA) by behavior analysts when implementing programming is key to evaluating the relationships between the dependent variable and independent variables. The use of the TPRA treatment integrity tool can be a positive asset in increasing the _____________ of the intervention.
effectiveness
Brodhead (2015) summaries that the use of social validity surveys presented to colleagues in a multidisciplinary team regarding BCBA behavior can assist the behavior analyst in what way?
-in evaluating the effectiveness of outcomes of the team
-in enhancing the professional behaviors of the analyst in the future
-in assessing the professional behavior of the analyst
all of the answer choices are correct
A measure of procedural integrity is used to determine:
all of the answer choices are correct
-the consistency of the application of the independent variable
-whether confounding variables can be ruled out
- if the intervention has been implemented correctly
Which of the following items below does NOT fall within the ethical responsibility of a behavior analyst?
become friends with the client and clients family
Alan, a BCBA, is consulting with a teacher who reports that one of Alan’s students is throwing spitballs at classmates. The teacher collected frequency data for a week and reported that she believes the student’s behavior is motivated by peer attention. The BCBA, has a large caseload and will not be able to observe the student for 2 weeks. In the interim, the BCBA recommended a 5-minute non-exclusionary time-out with the student. He also instructs the teacher to continue taking data so that he can see if the time-out procedure is working. His supervisor reviews the and decided that it was missing a component. The missing key component is:
the concomitant use of a reinforcement procedure
Scarlett has been collecting TPRA data on her staff when implementing a discrete trial program for one of the students she supervises. She has noticed that one particular staff member makes more than 50% errors on learn units every time she runs the program and has a very low rate of accuracy score. What should Scarlett’s next step be, given this information?
Scarlett should model correct implementation of the program with this staff member
Treatment Acceptability is also known as:
Social Validity