Discussion questions:
Stimuli and Conditions
he parents of a four-year-old have asked for help in "getting control" of their child's behavior. The child has been consistently throwing "temper tantrums" at home and out in the community. The "tantrums" have become so frequent and intense, that the child has no virtually no demands placed on him or her and is frequently left to do whatever he or she wants to do. The family has become more or less homebound for fear of experiencing the "tantrums" out in public places.
1.) Operationally define a target behavior based on the information in the scenario.
2.) Describe, in specific detail, how Antecedent stimuli and conditions could be potentially important for the assessment of the target behavior. Include discussion of Discriminative Stimuli and Motivating Operations in the response.
3.) Describe, in specific detail, how Consequence stimuli and conditions could be potentially important for the assessment of the target behavior. Indicate the influences of Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, and Automatic Reinforcement in the response.
4.) Describe, in specific detail, at least two ethical obligations and/or concerns that would be necessary to address within the case scenario.
Based on chapters 4 and 5 of the literature by Steege, M. W. & Watson, T. S. (2009). Conducting school-based functional behavioral assessments: A practitioner's guide (2nd ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Pressin, it should be evident that development of a Behavior Intervention Plan cannot occur without the completion of a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA).