Professional practice of behavior analysis

obeying the classroom rules. Sebastian has not been diagnosed with any developmental disabilities or any medical conditions. Behavior analyst need to consider the clients demographic background when conducting a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA). In order to establish and quantify Sebastian’s tantrums an appropriate behavior intervention will need to be implemented. However, behavior analyst needs to be competence in diverse cultural backgrounds, assess linguistic, and be aware how family…

Operant conditioning is a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences. The purpose is to strengthen the behavior and make it happen more often. There are different consequences you can use are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. If you are trying to teach someone something the best way is to use positive reinforcement. Research shows that rewards are more effective than punishment. When using positive reinforcement, it…

Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), a Masters degree is required along with 1,500…

superstitious behavior, an act in which one establishes a conditioned behavioral response to a drive regardless of there being no apparent correlation between the behavior and the drive. To test his hypothesis, Skinner established an experiment with pigeons. The pigeons were famished and then put into a cage which had a food hopper attached to it. The food hopper was controlled by a clock, and would therefore give food periodically. Photographs were taken at some intervals to compare the…

Operant conditioning is one type of learning behaviour theory that developed by B. F. Skinner in 1938. It is a behaviour designed to people in a way that will gain something desired or avoiding something unpleasant. It is also known as Law of Effect. Furthermore, learning behaviour is controlled by the consequences of the behaviour itself which are reinforcement or punishment. Besides, both consequences have their own positive and negative event which will result new behaviour development in…

satisfactory or unsatisfactory, then the possibility of this person using this response in future increases and decreases respectively. Rotter (1966) states that when person experiences a reinforcement, it directly gives strength to the expectation of the behavior, which will be followed by the same reinforcement…

Summary A child in school has several behavior issues. A new BCBA was called into access the child. She believes the child needs medication for behavioral control. The BCBA talk to the school principle to let her know a functional analysis and a medical work-up would be recommended. She believes the child needs medication. The principle says the child cannot be managed in the school setting. She wants the child out of the school and moved to a special program. If the BCBA tells the principle…

I interviewed my CT, Mrs. P about a time she was challenged by a student’s behavior and her answer presented a challenging behavior indeed. She told me about a student, who I will refer to as student D, she had several years ago who use to interrupt instruction on a daily basis in what she believed to be an attempt to get attention. His disruptive behavior occurred on a daily basis but the intensity varied from day to day. Some days he would stand up in front of the white board while Mrs. P was…

Token economies reinforce desired behavior through the delivery of tokens or chips that can be exchanged for back-up reinforcers in the way of desired objects or privileges. In a token economy, there are three major elements: There must be a specific list of clearly defined target behaviors; tokens or points must be identified; and there must be a list of backup reinforcers or items for which the saved tokens can be exchanged (Miltenberger, 2012). In preparing to implement the token economy,…

Punishment Punishment is a behavior modification procedure in which a response is followed by a consequence, which decreases the future frequency of the response and similar responses. There are two theories about punishment that shape how punishment is defined today. The first theory defines punishment as a procedure that elicits a response incompatible with the punished behavior (Holth, 2005). This theory was supported by Thorndike and Skinner who believed that punishment was not effective at…