Exam 1 - Methods of behavioral change

How many waves of behavior change were there?

• There were 3

  • First generation - 1950s

  • Second generation

  • Third generation - 1990s

What was the first generation of behavior change characterized by?

• Classical Conditioning

• Operant conditioning

What was the second generation of behavior change characterized by?

• Negative thoughts, images, feelings & beliefs seen as undesired/maladaptive behavior

• CBT to modify cognitions constructively

• CBT had the most evidence for effectiveness in many psychological problems

What was the third generation of behavior change characterized by?

• Accept negative cognitions AND pursue your valued goals

• Be present-oriented, nonjudgmental awareness of bodily states

• Psychological flexibility – bigger range of coping strategies

• Built on the 1st and 2nd generation waves

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and
  Mindfulness-based therapies

What is a behavioural intervention?

• modify target behaviours by directly influencing their controlling conditions

What is a cognitive intervention?

• Modification of the client’s cognitions as the target in order to then influence behaviours.

What was the third generation’s approach to behavior change?

• learn mindfulness techniques

• radical acceptance

What is the current behavior change approach?

• combines

  • behavioural interventions

  • cognitive interventions

  • 3rd generation approaches

• to be the most efficacious

What is the problem-solving framework?

• Intake: Develop a collaborative relationship w/client (w/ active participation of client)

• Behavioral assessment: Assess problem, develop hypothesis, control conditions (antecedents, consequences)

• Goal setting: Formulate behavior change goals (target behavior has to be measurable)

• Intervention planning: Design an individualized plan (evidence-based, culturally aware, ethically sound)

• Implementation: Implement behavior change program

• Evaluation: Monitor and evaluate effects of the program

• Generalization and maintenance of the program

What is the empowerement approach to behavioral change?

• People should not be forced to change

• They should be inspired to change

• Avoiding doing change through fear and authority

Why is behavior change harder than we think?

• Not everyone wants to change

  • May prefer familiarity

  • Growth threatens identity

  • Comfort can be addictive

  • Change can be scary and painful etc.

What is overt behavior and what is covert behavior?

• overt behaviors, behavior you can see (cleaning, sleep habits etc.)

• covert, behavior you cannot see (non-observable behaviors like spiralling, anxiety) etc.

Define “Behavior therapy”

• A psychological treatment approach that focuses on changing maladaptive behaviours by applying principles of learning, such as conditioning and reinforcement.

Define “Behavior modification”

• A systematic application of learning principles, especially reinforcement and punishment, to increase desirable behaviours and decrease undesirable ones.

Define “CBT”

• A form of psychotherapy that helps people identify and change negative thoughts and beliefs that influence emotions and behaviours.

Define “Social Learning Theory”

A theory developed by Albert Bandura that states people learn behaviours by observing and imitating others, as well as through direct experience.

Define “ABA”

• A scientific approach that applies principles of learning and behaviour to improve socially significant behaviours and reduce problematic behaviours.

What are the four principles of the Canadian Code of Ethics Principles?

• Respect for the Dignity of Persons and Peoples

• Responsible Caring

• Integrity in Relationships

• Responsibility to Society

What are the ABA intervention approaches?

• Uses operant conditioning principles (reinforcement, punishment, rewards) to improve socially significant behaviours.

• Focuses on shaping behaviours that help individuals meet social expectations and function effectively within their environment.

• Progress is measured through observable, measurable behaviours, often using small, gradual steps toward meaningful goals.

What are some ethical concerns of behavioral change?

• Coercion and behaviour control

• Neurotypical standards vs. neurodiversity

• Masking and impact on identity

• Who decides what is "acceptable" behaviour?

• Balancing adaptation with individual wellbeing

What are the typical target behaviors in ASD?

• General Identity Target

• Stim Target

• Special Interest Target

• Social Skill Target

• Developmental/Language/Life Skill Targets

• Immediate Danger/Self-harm Target

What are potential side effects of ABA?

• Higher levels of PTSD

• Correlation between masking & suicidality

• May assume behaviors are due to ASD but miss functional analysis pieces

• Social and developmental skills may emerge overtime in atypical ways

Why is ABA most common?

• Often only treatment offered by medical personnel

• Standard treatment for students in schools for 25 hours per week

• Government endorses ABA, and pays for treatment

• Only treatment covered by insurance, financial burden on parents if use alterative treatment

• Even though they have decisional authority, they still need to consider their child’s autonomy-related interests

• Do the benefits > compromises?

Why are covert behaviors harder to measure

• Cannot be seen

• Often relying on self report measures

  • Makes them less efficient for children since report would not be accurate

What are the four types of behavior changes?

• Newly developed: A behavior that never happened before which we went to start engaging in

  • Ex: You want to start going to the gym once a week

• Increased/strengthened: Behaviors that we want to increase or strenghten

  • Ex: You want to increase the time we are studying

• Maintained at a certain rate/pattern: Behavior that is staying the same, that you woud like to keep engaging in consistently

  • Ex: You started going to the gym and you’d like to keep going consistently

• Decreased/Weakened/Suppressed: Behaviors we want to engage in less, that we want to decrease

  • Ex: You want to reduce your screen usage

How is response strength measured?

• Rate: frequency, how many times we do the behavior, it is “frequency/time”

• Duration: How long?

• Intensity: How severe?

• Response Strength = rate + duration + intensity

Typically, how much baseline data do we want to collect?

• About 2 weeks

• Can help notice patterns

• Can help getting more realistic and accurate data on the behavior we want to change

Define “Stimuli”

• Can be an object, event, environment or behavior

• Can come before or after a response

• Can be unconditioned (primary) or conditioned (secondary)

Define “classical conditioning”

• A stimulus precedes and elicits a response.

Define “operant conditioning”

• Operant conditioning: A consequence follows a response and changes the future likelihood of that response.

  • Reinforcers: Increase the future frequency or likelihood of a response.

  • Punishers: Decrease the future frequency or likelihood of a response.

Define “Reinforcement” “Punishment” “Positive” & “Negative”

Explained how positive reinforcers work

• “Positive” in this sense means that a stimulus is added in order to increase the response (either in rate, or in intensity etc.)

  • “R” refer to the primary stimuli

    • This means it is contingent

    • “R” must happen for “r” to be received

  • “r” secondary (or conditioned) stimuli

    • This means “r” is a consequence

    • It is the positive reinforcer that increases the response

ex:

R= homework completed

S= Praise

r= does homework more diligently

What is the difference between an unconditioned (natural) reinforcer & a conditioned reinforcer?

• Unconditioned “Natural” Reinforcers

  • Tend to be more based on human needs

    • Food, water, sex, tactile stimulation

• Conditioned reinforcers

  • Tend to be in association with other reinforcers

    • Money, praise, tokens

What is an operant behavior?

• Behavior that is controlled by its consequences

  • Ex: positive reinforcement

• Individual acts on the environment to produce consequences

• Also called instrumental learning

• Stimulus/Stimuli is neutral until we can prove that adding that consequence has led to increasing the response overtime

What is an unpleasant positive reinforcer?

• Undesired behavior accidentally reinforced with unpleasant positive reinforcers

  • Attention is attention, positive or negative

  • Say a child throws a tantrum, giving them attention may unintentionally reinforce the behavior

• Positive reinforcement has to happen as a consequence; cannot offer them something to stop (bribery) or you will be reinforcing the negative behavior at the beginning rather than the stopping

Define “rewards”

• It is important to note:

  All rewards are positive reinforcers but not all positive reinforcers are rewards

• For a positive reinforcer to be a reward, it has to be a pleasant reinforcer rather than an unpleasant reinforcer

• We also have to carefully distinguish between “rewards” & “bribery”

  • Bribery happens in response to the challenging behavior

    • Say a child has a tantrum

    • You give them a cookie on the condition they stop

    • You may reinforce the behavior “throwing a tantrum” rather than quieting down

  • You have to clearly communicate a consistent reward schedule based on the behavior rather than negotiate on the spot

How do we assess reinforcer effectiveness?

• In order for a reinforcer to be effective we need:

  • For the reinforcer to be close to the response

    • In younger children, it is important it is close and with age, the delay can be longer

    • Ex: You made it to class, you can rewards yourself with a coffee a few hours after

  • It has to be some sort of a stimuli which they cannot access easily or frequently

    • The positive reinforcer has to match the behavioral demand

      • Ex: REB thinking about what your time is worth to compensate you approrpiately

How to identify potential reinforcers?

• Free choice

• Examine past reinforcers

• Complete a reinforcement survey

What is the difference between internal and external positive reinforcers

• Internal (self-administered)

  • Self-talk, completion of a task, satisfied from their work/performance

• External (tangible or social demonstrations of their worth)

  • Points, privileges, praise, tangible positive reinforcers

  • Approval from others

How do you assess the effect of a potential positive reinforcer

• Assess baseline, track target behavior for a week

• Track the same way after doing intervention

Define extinction

• Decrease strength of response (frequency)

  • Fully extinguished = 0

  • Prespecified rate

  • Baseline rate (rate prior to intervention)

• Systematically withhold previously positively reinforced consequences

• Contingency discontinued

What is single-subject evaluation?

• This design has several names, but the professor generally uses the book’s heading: single-subject evaluation.

• In an A-B-A-B design:

  • A = extinction or baseline condition

  • B = reinforcement or intervention condition

• Repeatedly alternating between A and B provides strong evidence that the intervention caused the change in behavior.

• Although A-B-A-B is a strong demonstration of experimental control, it is not always appropriate in therapy:

  • We are often satisfied when behavior improves from B to A.

  • We should not withdraw an effective intervention for dangerous behaviors, such as headbanging or self-harm, simply to demonstrate that the intervention worked.

What is a multiple baseline design

• Multiple behaviors can be targeted within the same evaluation.

• The key is to measure the baseline of each behavior simultaneously before introducing the intervention.

What is the application of extinction for undersired behaviors?

1. Determine the baseline rate.

2. Conduct an assessment to identify the maintaining reinforcer.

3. Implement the A-B-A-B design.

4. Reassess the behavior.

5. Replicate the A-B-A-B sequence.

6. Reassess again.

What is active ignoring?

• Stay silent, avert your eyes

• Keep facial expression neutral

• Do not communicate anything with your body language/non-verbal language

• Leave area of the child, go to other side of the room

• Praise once behavior becomes appropriate

What is the key to extinction?

• Consistently withhold positive reinforcement to avoid behavior being reinstated even briefly

  • This is because that would make the behavior harder to extinguish in the future

• You must also prevent others from delivering positive reinforcement

What is differential reinforcement?

• xtinction and positive reinforcement usually work together when designing an intervention:

  • Extinguish the undesired behavior.

  • Reinforce a desired replacement behavior.

• A common mistake is trying to extinguish a behavior without providing an alternative.

  • For example, rather than simply trying to eliminate alcohol use, a person might replace it with social activities, clubs, or other rewarding experiences.

• Using extinction and reinforcement together is called differential reinforcement.

What is spontaneous recovery

• A behavior may reappear even after it has been extinguished.

• This can happen when the person encounters a similar situation or context in which the behavior was previously reinforced.

What is a response class?

• Reponse class = class or grouping of very similar behaviors

  • The idea is that we may reinforce one behavior and the other one may come along with it

  • When working with response class we would use differentiation to avoid reinforcing undesired behaviors as a “side effect” of positively reinforcing a desired behavior in the same response class

What is DRO?

• Differential Reinforcement of Other (DRO)

  • Reinforce any behavior other than an undesired behavior

  • Often used with self-harming behaviors

    • Replacing this behavior by anything is better than having the self-harming behavior

  • Downside: Hard to manage what you are reinforcing, feels like wack-a-mole, you are differentially reinforcing anything else and more undersired behaviors pop up

What is DRI

• Reinforce a behavior that would make it incompatible to engage in the undesired behaviors

  • If you are pulling on hoodie strings, your hands are occupied so you cannot pull at your hair

What are the different types of differential reinforcement

What is shaping?

• Shaping develops a new behavior by reinforcing successive approximations of the target response.

• Begin with a response that already occurs, even if it is only loosely related to the target.

• Gradually raise the criterion: reinforce closer and closer approximations while earlier approximations no longer receive reinforcement.

• Shaping is especially useful when the target behavior rarely occurs or is not yet in the person’s repertoire.

Why do we use shaping for selective mutism?

• Shaping can build communication gradually by reinforcing low-anxiety approximations first, such as eye contact, gestures, nonverbal responses, whispering, or speaking with a trusted person.

• Progressively generalize the response across people, places, and louder forms of speech; avoid forcing speech or reinforcing distress.

What are the steps of shaping?

What are some effective shaping strategies?

• Instructions and prompting can be used at every stage; fade prompts as the person becomes more independent.

• Demonstration and modeling are useful when the learner benefits from seeing the response.

• Physical guidance may be used when appropriate, with consent and attention to safety.

• Consequences such as punishment should be used cautiously and only when appropriate; reinforcement remains the central shaping strategy.

What are discriminative stimuli/discrimination training?

• Type of antecedents that impacts the performance of a response

• SD sets the occasion for a response to be reinforced, increases the strength

• SΔ does not set the occasion for a response to be reinforced, extinguishes the strength

What are the ABC’s of behaviors

• ABC

  • Antecedent

  • Behavior

  • Consequence