IDENTIFYING INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS THAT OCCASION PROBLEM BEHAVIORS AND ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF STUDENT VERSUS TEACHER CHOICE AMONG THESE TASKS

Levels of problem behavior were assessed when 4 students with severe disabilities received instruction on preferred versus nonpreferred tasks and when tasks of each type were chosen by the teacher rather than by the student. In Phase 1, interview and direct observation assessments were conducted to identify relative preferences for academic tasks. In Phase 2, the effects of these lower preference and higher preference tasks on the rate of problem behavior were evaluated using a multielement design. The results showed that lower preference tasks were associated with higher rates of problem behaviors and that students, when given a choice, consistently selected the tasks that had been identified through interview and direct observation as higher preference. In Phase 3, we assessed whether allowing the students to choose between pairs of lower preference tasks or between pairs of higher preference tasks reduced problem behavior relative to a condition in which the teacher selected the same tasks. For 2 of 4 students, the rates of problem behavior were lower when students (rather than the teacher) selected the lower preference activity. Higher preference tasks for 3 students were associated with relatively low rates of problem behavior regardless of whether the student or the teacher selected the task.     

EFFECTS OF STIMULANT MEDICATION UNDER VARIED MOTIVATIONAL OPERATIONS

We evaluated the evocative effects of four conditions (high‐ and low‐preference activities, low and divided attention) and stimulant medication on the behavior of a 16‐year‐old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and moderate mental retardation. All behavior (activity engagement, activity changes, inappropriate touching, rude behaviors, and physical aggression) improved with stimulant medication in most conditions, but undesirable behaviors were not reduced to acceptable levels in all conditions. This finding suggests that stimulant medication may be a valuable adjunct to function‐based interventions.     

From dispositions to behaviors: The flip side of attribution

The implicational relations between dispositional levels and relevant categories of behavior were investigated. Observers were asked questions about the extent to which persons occupying moderate or extreme positions on an attribute (dispositional) continuum (a) attempt various behaviors, (b) are potentially able to perform various behaviors, and (c) generally emit those same behaviors. Three determinants—central tendency, ability, and social desirabliity—offer a reasonable account of the observed implicational relations. First, persons with a given disposition are not expected to emit behavior that is widely discrepant with that disposition. Second, ability considerations dictate that persons with skillful dispositions are believed capable of unskillful behavior, but unskillful persons are thought relatively incapable of skillful behavior. Third, persons are believed to more frequently attempt socially desirable than socially undesirable behavior. Also, persons with moderate dispositions are believed to actually emit socially desirable behavior more frequently than socially undesirable behavior. Finally, the determinants noted above may be of differing relevance for morality, ability, and preference attributes.     

Reducing problem behaviors in a residential unit using structural analysis and staff management procedures: A preliminary study

A structural analysis of the problem behaviors of 32 adults with mental retardation living together in a residential facility showed that a disproportionate number of these behaviors were associated with a period of time scheduled for leisure activities. A staff management program was implemented during this time which included activity and staff scheduling, staff inservice training, and staff performance monitoring and feedback. The results showed an 83% decrease in problem behaviors when the program was implemented during the leisure period and no decrease in problem behaviors during adjacent time periods where the program was not utilized. Follow-up assessments indicated maintenance of these decreased levels of behavior at 3 and 6 months. It was concluded that this approach of combining a structural analysis with staff management procedures was effective in reducing a high level of problem behavior in a residential setting. The results are discussed with regard to pragmatic strategies for the pretreatment analysis of problem behaviors in residential settings, and the role of organizational behavior management techniques in habilitative programing for individuals with behavior disorders.     

Academic Remediation: Educational Applications of Research on Assignment Preference and Choice

SUMMARY

Within educational settings students can choose to engage in assigned academic activities or other, sometimes disruptive behaviors. In the current paper recent research on assignment preference, choice, and choosing is reviewed. Results of these studies show how educators can enhance students' academic behaviors (e.g., on-task behavior), decrease disruptive behaviors, and improve academic performance by (a) allowing students to choose assignments, (b) assigning higher preference academic activities, (c) strengthening reinforcement for engaging in academic activities, and (d) altering assignments to make them more acceptable to students.     

TASK DIFFICULTY AND ABERRANT BEHAVIOR IN SEVERELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS

The influence of task difficulty on aberrant behavior was investigated with three severely handicapped students. Noticeably higher rates of problem behavior occurred in demand compared to no-demand conditions. In addition, there were higher rates of problem behaviors on difficult versus easy tasks. Both these findings were validated with visual discrimination and perceptual motor tasks. An errorless learning procedure effectively minimized errors and aberrant behavior in visual discrimination tasks but not in perceptual motor tasks. It was conceptualized that aberrant behavior was maintained by negative reinforcement contingencies. Difficult tasks were aversive to the children, who emitted aberrant responses to escape or avoid such tasks. By contrast, conditions in which no demands were made, easy tasks, and, in visual discrimination learning, errorless tasks, were less aversive and resulted in little or no problem behavior. Implications for reducing maladaptive behaviors through curricular modifications are discussed and contrasted to more traditional consequence manipulation approaches.     

The effects of choice-making on the problem behaviors of high school students with intellectual disabilities

This investigation was conducted in an effort to systematically extend the emerging data base having to do with choice-making opportunities and the behavior of students with disabilities. In particular, the current analyses examined the effects of choice-making on the problem behavior and task engagement of three high school students with intellectual disabilities as the students performed domestic and vocational activities. Multiple baseline and reversal designs demonstrated that the choice conditions reduced problem behaviors and increased task engagement for all participants. Data having to do with student affect and task productivity were less consistent. The findings on the relationship between choice making and problem behavior replicate and extend a growing literature on the desirable effects of choice-making for individuals with disabilities. The results are discussed in terms of recent developments in behavioral support, as well as the need for ongoing conceptual and applied research.     

Patterns of adolescent involvement in problem behaviors: Relationship to self-efficacy,social competence,and life events

Using a sample of 556 adolescents from a suburban community, patterns of various adolescent problem behaviors (e.g., delinquent behavior, smoking, use of alcohol or drugs) and their links to self-efficacy, social competence, and life events were examined. Cluster analysis was conducted to identify four subgroups of adolescents who showed distinct patterns of problem behaviors. These clusters were compared on the measures of self-efficacy, social competence, and life events. Overall results suggest there are meaningful links between adolescents’ problem behavior patterns and self-efficacy, the amount and quality of participation in various after school activities, and life events. For example, a subgroup of adolescents who showed uniformly low prevalence of all problem behaviors reported more positive academic self-efficacy, more active participation in sports and nonsports activities, more positive life events, and fewer negative events than adolescents who were involved in multiple problem behaviors. Implications for prevention and future research on adolescent problem behaviors are discussed.     

The Structure of Problem and Positive Behavior Among American Indian Adolescents: Gender and Community Differences

Using Problem-Behavior Theory as a framework, the latent structure of problem and positive behaviors was examined within a sample of 1,894 American Indian adolescents. Support was found for a two-factor second-order structure in which problem behaviors (antisocial behavior, alcohol use, drug use, and risky sexual behavior) and positive behaviors (school success, cultural activities, competencies, and community-mindedness) represented two relatively uncorrelated aspects of behavior. Hierarchical multiple regressions demonstrated that the positive behaviors construct contributed significant incremental construct validity in the statistical prediction of psychosocial outcomes, over and above the problem behaviors. In addition, the fit of the structure was examined across gender and the four participating communities. The importance of the inclusion of positive behaviors is discussed from the standpoint of both prevention/promotion activities and the communities' perceptions. Further recommendations are made for deeper understandings of community concerns and strengths in conducting preventive/promotive research efforts.     

BEHAVIORAL TREATMENT OF DEVIANT SEX-ROLE BEHAVIORS IN A MALE CHILD1

This study demonstrated reinforcement control over pronounced feminine behaviors in a male child who had been psychologically evaluated as manifesting “childhood cross-gender identity”. The clinical history of the subject paralleled the retrospective reports of adult transsexuals, including (a) cross-gender clothing preferences, (b) actual or imaginal use of cosmetic articles, (c) feminine behavior mannerisms, (d) aversion to masculine activities, coupled with preference for girl playmates and feminine activities, (e) preference for female role, (f) feminine voice inflection and predominantly feminine content in speech, and (g) verbal statements about the desire or preference to be a girl. The subject was treated sequentially in the clinic and home environments by his mother, trained to be his therapist. The mother was taught to reinforce masculine behaviors and to extinguish feminine behaviors, by using social reinforcement in the clinic and a token reinforcement procedure in the home. During this treatment, his feminine behaviors sharply decreased and masculine behavior increased. The treatment effects were found to be largely response-specific and stimulus-specific; consequently, it was necessary to strengthen more than one masculine behavior and weaken several feminine behaviors, in both clinic and home settings. A multiple-baseline intrasubject design was used to ensure both replication and identification of relevant treatment variables. Follow-up data three years after the treatment began suggests that the boy's sex-typed behaviors have become normalized. This study suggests a preliminary step toward correcting pathological sex-role development in boys, which may provide a basis for the primary prevention of adult transsexualism or similar adult sex-role deviation.     

Teaching children with autism to explain how: A case for problem solving?

Few studies have applied Skinner's (1953) conceptualization of problem solving to teach socially significant behaviors to individuals with developmental disabilities. The current study used a multiple probe design across behavior (sets) to evaluate the effects of problem‐solving strategy training (PSST) on the target behavior of explaining how to complete familiar activities. During baseline, none of the three participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could respond to the problems presented to them (i.e., explain how to do the activities). Tact training of the actions in each activity alone was ineffective; however, all participants demonstrated independent explaining‐how following PSST. Further, following PSST with Set 1, tact training alone was sufficient for at least one scenario in sets 2 and 3 for all 3 participants. Results have implications for generative responding for individuals with ASD and further the discussion regarding the role of problem solving in complex verbal behavior.     

The comparative effectiveness of group and individually contingent free time with inner-city junior high school students

A major purpose of the study was to assess the relative effects of group versus individually contingent free time in modifying student behaviors. Other purposes were to determine the effectiveness of well-planned lesson activities and tokens without back-up reinforcers. Eight students in an inner-city seventh-grade class of 32 blacks served as subjects. Well-organized lesson activities and success feedback via tokens did not produce high levels of desirable behavior. In contrast, group and individually contingent free time produced substantially higher levels of appropriate behavior than did the baseline conditions. The group reinforcement procedure appeared to be slightly more effective than individual reinforcement.     

Provision of leisure activities for the reduction of challenging behavior

Behavioral treatment of challenging behaviors, such as aggression, self-injury, property destruction, and stereotyped movement is often a priority in residential facilities for persons with developmental disabilities. If these behaviors occur when the client is otherwise unengaged, a potentially effective treatment may be to provide alternative activities. In the present study, 3 adults with severe disabilities were observed. During baseline, these 3 individuals frequently displayed challenging behavior at times when they were otherwise unengaged. Opportunities to participate in leisure activities were then provided to each client in a multiple-baseline design. Provision of leisure opportunities was associated with increased adaptive behavior and collateral reductions in problem behaviors. The effectiveness of the intervention procedures suggest that these challenging behaviors may have been related to the lack of alternative activities.     

CHOICE MAKING TO PROMOTE ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR FOR STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL CHALLENGES

Two analyses investigated the effects of choice making on the responding of elementary school students with emotional and behavioral challenges. In the first analysis, 2 participants were given choices from menus of academic tasks, all of which were pertinent to their educational objectives in English and spelling, respectively. Reversal designs showed that the choice-making conditions increased task engagement and reduced disruptive behavior for both students. An additional analysis was performed with a 3rd student in an effort to further distinguish the effects of choice making from preference. In this study, one of the no-choice phases was yoked to a previous choice-making condition. This analysis demonstrated that the choice-making condition was superior to baseline and yoked control phases as determined by levels of task engagement and disruptive behavior. The findings of the two analyses contribute information relevant to students with emotional and behavioral disorders, and to a growing literature on the desirable effects of choice making for students with disabilities and challenging behaviors.     

Adolescent Narcissism,Aggression, and Prosocial Behavior: The Relevance of Socially Desirable Responding

An important threat to validity in personality research pertains to an individual's motivation to respond in a socially desirable manner on self-report inventories. This issue was examined in this study in the context of narcissism, aggression, and prosocial behavior in a sample of at-risk adolescents. Participants were 161 adolescents (128 males, 29 females, 4 not reported) ranging in age from 16 to 19 years who were attending a residential program for youth who have dropped out of school. Overall, socially desirable response tendencies were negatively correlated with vulnerable narcissism and self-reported aggression. Moreover, low socially desirable responses strengthened the relation between narcissism and self-reported aggression. Socially desirable responding was not associated with self- or peer-reported prosocial behavior and did not moderate the relation between narcissism and prosocial behavior. These findings indicate that the relation between narcissism and aggression is attenuated by concerns with social desirability. However, further work is needed in broader samples of adolescents to more closely examine whether social desirability concerns actually mitigate aggression among some youth or signify underreporting of one's problem behaviors.     

Cognitive control and socially desirable behavior: The role of interpersonal impact

The current research reconciles two contradicting sets of findings on the role of cognitive control in socially desirable behaviors. One set of findings suggests that people are tempted by self-serving impulses and have to rely on cognitive control overriding such impulses to act in socially desirable ways. Another set of findings suggests people are guided by other-regarding impulses and cognitive control is not necessary to motivate socially desirable behaviors. We theorize that the dominant impulse is to behave in a socially desirable manner when the interpersonal impact of an action is salient, and that the dominant impulse is to behave in a self-serving manner when the interpersonal impact of an action is not salient. Studies 1–3 found that impairing participants’ cognitive control led to less socially desirable behavior when interpersonal impact was not salient, but more socially desirable behavior when interpersonal impact was salient. Study 4 demonstrates that behaving in a socially desirable manner causes cognitive control impairment when interpersonal impact is not salient. But, when interpersonal impact is salient, behaving in a self-serving manner impairs cognitive control. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding and managing socially desirable behaviors.     

The effects of preference assessment type on problem behavior

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who engage in problem behavior maintained by access to tangibles may exhibit more problem behavior during certain preference assessments. We compared three common preference assessments to determine which resulted in fewer problem behaviors. The paired stimulus and multiple‐stimulus without replacement assessments produced higher rates of problem behavior than the free operant (FO) assessment, suggesting that the FO assessment may be the most appropriate assessment for individuals who engage in problem behavior maintained by access to tangibles.     

Links between early baseline cortisol,attachment classification,and problem behaviors: A test of differential susceptibility versus diathesis-stress

The purpose of the current study was to predict concurrent levels of problem behaviors from young children’s baseline cortisol and attachment classification, a proxy for the quality of caregiving experienced. In a sample of 58 children living at or below the federal poverty threshold, children’s baseline cortisol levels, attachment classification, and problem behaviors were assessed at 17 months of age. We hypothesized that an interaction between baseline cortisol and attachment classification would predict problem behaviors above and beyond any main effects of baseline cortisol and attachment. However, based on limited prior research, we did not predict whether or not this interaction would be more consistent with diathesis-stress or differential susceptibility models. Consistent with diathesis-stress theory, the results indicated no significant differences in problem behavior levels among children with high baseline cortisol. In contrast, children with low baseline cortisol had the highest level of problem behaviors in the context of a disorganized attachment relationship. However, in the context of a secure attachment relationship, children with low baseline cortisol looked no different, with respect to problem behavior levels, then children with high cortisol levels. These findings have substantive implications for the socioemotional development of children reared in poverty.     

Predicting Kindergarten Peer Social Status from Toddler and Preschool Problem Behavior

The aim of this study was to investigate the toddler and preschool predictors of early peer social preference. Behavioral and social functioning were examined in a sample of children across the toddler and preschool years from parent and teacher observations. Kindergarten social behavior and peer social preference were assessed in the children's kindergarten classrooms using standard sociometric techniques. Results indicated that parent report of toddler externalizing behavior and teacher report of preschool problem behavior, as indexed by aggressive behavior, social skills, and emotional regulation, were predictive of peer liking in kindergarten. However, this relation was mediated by specific behaviors evidenced in the kindergarten classroom. For boys, overt aggression mediated these relations. For girls, sharing and engaging in sneaky behavior in kindergarten mediated the relation between preschool problem behaviors and peer status. These results indicate that specific behaviors displayed in the peer group account for the relation between early problem behavior and peer status. Moreover, these data point to the importance of considering gender when examining developmental trajectories and outcomes.     

A comparison of existing and novel communication responses used during functional communication training

Functional communication training (FCT) is a procedure used to teach a communicative response that results in the same reinforcer found to maintain problem behavior. Previous research has demonstrated that high levels of problem behavior may be observed during FCT when reinforcing an existing response due to a history of reinforcement for both existing responses and problem behavior. This study compared the effects of reinforcing an existing and novel communicative response during FCT on the rate of problem behavior for two children diagnosed with autism. Additionally, we assessed preference for either the existing or novel response using a concurrent schedules arrangement. The results demonstrated that the existing and novel communication responses were associated with low levels of problem behavior for both participants. Also, both participants preferred the novel response. We conclude with a discussion of practical applications of the analysis and avenues for future research.