Discussion:
Case Studies in Behavioral Analysis
Case Study 1: William
Ms. Tooley contacts you, an ABA analyst, to assist her with a child in her classroom named William. William is a healthy 6-year-old boy who has been terrorizing his classmates. The problem has been occurring since the beginning of the school year. William pushes, kicks, hits or bites other children in the class. This has often happened during recess time. Ms. Tooley first addressed the issue by scolding William. That did not appear to reduce the behavior, so she then required him to visit the principal's office whenever an episode of hitting/biting occurred. These visits also had little effect in reducing the negative behaviors.
1.What is the target behavior that you will plan to address? Write a target behavior definition.
2.How would you first assess William? Discuss the rationale for your choice of assessment.
3.Discuss one reason why the teacher's original methods of behavioral management may have failed.
4.Design an effective behavior modification program for William using a combination approach (two or more behavioral techniques).
5.Discuss your rationale for selecting the combination approach, drawing upon behavioral theory.
6.Explain how you would evaluate the modification program.
Discuss issues related to spontaneous recovery of behavior, extinction and maintenance of desired behavior.
Case Study 2: Annie
Hospital Administrator Rodriguez contacts you because she is experiencing difficulty with an ABA program that you designed for one of her psychiatric patients, Annie. The patient, a 40-year-old female with schizophrenia, has been exhibiting a great deal of difficulty with a few daily care routines, including brushing her teeth and making her bed in the morning. The program that you originally designed was a token economy system in which she would earn 1 token for each completed activity and then collect a reward (extra time in the courtyard) once 10 tokens were obtained. Ms. Rodriguez reports that Annie is not completing the tasks and then as a result, not earning any tokens. She asks you to revisit the hospital to determine what is not working.
1.What are three possible issues that can occur with a newly implemented behavioral change program? Discuss what aspects of the program you would want to check on first before making any changes.
2.Choosing one of the three potential issues, elaborate on how this may be negatively impacting the program and how you could address the problem to increase the likelihood that the program would work.
3.Discuss the concept of response priming and whether this might work to facilitate behavioral change in the above case study.
4.Describe an alternative modification program (instead of the one presented) for Annie.