Functional Behavior Assessments and Functional Analyses

Functional Behavior Assessments and Functional Analyses

The primary role of functional behaviour assessments (FBA) is to enable a specific group to acquire information such as when, where, and with whom the behaviour occurs. It also informs the previous circumstances of the behaviour and the effects of the behaviour. Functional analyses can be conducted when individuals aim to find the foundation of a person’s challenging behaviour to design an appropriate treatment for the behaviour (Miltenberg, 2015). The pros and cons of functional analysis (FA) are illustrated in the table below:

An example of functional behaviour assessment is escape. It is an innate behaviour that occurs when an organism moves away from something immediately harmful or aversive. Kantorovich (2016) argues that this behaviour means drifting away from something that can hurt. The function of escape behaviour is that it provides release from a response costing condition. Wild and domestic animals utilize escape to avoid punishment, loud noises, startling light flashes, and stimuli to gain freedom from physical or psychological restraint. For instance, wild animals are often fed multiple times a day and kept in a well-secured enclosure with solid wood and a chain-link fence, while some are on display for public viewing. Escape as a functional behaviour applies here because if one animal tries to jump over one of the fences, there are minimal chances to escape.

The escape function is identified by observing the behaviour in question and then determining what stimulus the behaviour tries to avoid (Heer, 2017). In this example, the behaviour avoids a difficult or unpleasant situation. I applied the escape function to people, observed their behaviour, and noted that they often try to avoid unpleasant or difficult situations. I did not use FA or FBA to determine the function.

A functional analysis can be conducted on any behaviour. It can disclose a replacement behaviour, which reduces or eradicates the problem behaviour. For the escape function, an appropriate replacement behaviour would be to try to study the root cause of the problem behaviour, then approach it and avoid situations likely to be unpleasant or difficult.

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References

Heer, D. M. (2017). The Myth of Functional Analysis as a Special Method in Sociology and Anthropology. In Kingsley Davis (pp. 373-395). Routledge.

Kantorovich, L. V., & Akilov, G. P. (2016). Functional Analysis. Elsevier.

Miltenberger, R. G. (2015). Behaviour Modification: Principles and Procedures (6th Edition).

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Functional Behavior Assessments and Functional Analyses

In this unit, you explored the purpose of functional behaviour assessments and when to utilize functional analyses. Describe the importance of conducting an FBA and when to use a functional analysis.

Functional Behavior Assessments and Functional Analyses

Create a chart comparing the pros and cons of a functional analysis.

Provide an example for one of the functions of behaviour (escape, attention, access to tangible, automatic reinforcement). Explain how you identified this function. Did you use an FBA/FA to determine the function?

Describe an appropriate replacement behaviour that could be used in place of the problem behaviour for each example.

textbook

Miltenberger, R. G. (2015). Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures (6th ed.). Cengage Limited. https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/books/9781285227924