Date of Award

4-2016

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. R. Wayne Fuqua

Second Advisor

Dr. Stephanie Peterson

Third Advisor

Dr. Richard Malott

Keywords

Functional, analysis, training, assessment, behavior

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Functional behavior assessment (FBA), and more specifically functional analysis (FA), refer to structured assessment processes designed to identify the controlling variables for challenging behaviors across children, adolescents, and adults. The results from a functional analysis are used to match therapy techniques to unique causal variables for challenging behaviors and also to select more adaptive replacement behaviors that produce similar functions as the challenging behaviors. As functional analysis techniques, in all variations, have become more commonplace in applied behavior analysis (ABA), attention has turned to how to train practitioners to implement FAs, interpret the results, and use the FAs to inform treatment planning. In this study we evaluated a video modeling intervention in comparison to a written treatment protocol for training graduate students in this complex set of skills that are required for a comprehensive FA. The results of this study demonstrate participants varied in skill acquisition across conditions of written and video modeling, and each required additional vocal instruction to reach mastery criteria.

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