behavior modification

There are six commonly used behavior modification research designs. A reversal-replication research design includes a baseline phase followed by a treatment phase, followed by a reversal back to the baseline phase, and followed by a replication of the treatment phase. A multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design involves establishing baselines for two or more of an individual’s behavior, followed by applying the treatment sequentially across those behaviors. A multiple-baseline-across-situations design involves establishing baselines for a behavior of an individual across two or more situations concurrently, followed by applying the treatment to the behavior sequentially across those situations. A multiple-baseline-across-people design involves establishing baselines for a specific behavior across two or more people, followed by applying the treatment sequentially to each person. With a changing-criterion design, the control that a treatment exerts on an individual’s behavior is evaluated by introducing successive changes in the behavioral criterion for application of the treatment. The above five designs can be used for demonstrating that a particular treatment was responsible for a specific behavior change. An alternating-treatments design (also called a multielement design) involves alternating two or more treatment conditions, one condition per session, to compare their effects on a single behavior of a single individual.

Researchers who use the above designs visually inspect graphs of the data and follow seven guidelines to decide whether the treatment had an effect on the target behavior. Two of those guidelines are the size of the effect and the number of successful replications of the effect. Behavior modification researchers also commonly assess the social validity of an effect, which assesses how the client (and/or his/her caregivers) feels about the goals of the intervention, the procedures that were used, and the results produced by those procedures.

Questions

1. What are the three levels of social validation, and why are they important?
2. State an advantage of a multiple-baseline design over a reversal-replication.
3. Define dependent variable. Give an example.
4. Define independent variable. Give an example.
5. Define internal validity.
6. Define external validity.
7. Briefly, distinguish between a behavior modification program, consisting of just a baseline phase and a treatment phase, and behavior modification research.
8. Briefly describe a potential problem with the alternating-treatments design.
9. Ideally, how long should the baseline phase of the reversal-replication design continue?
10. How many reversals and replications are necessary in a reversal-replication design?
11. What are three potential limitations of a multiple-baseline-across-behaviors design?
12. What are three potential limitations of a multiple-baseline-across-situations design?