Behaviour Modification Applications

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Unit 16 2) Explain the difference between stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination. Describe examples illustrating the difference. Stimulus generalization refers to the transfer, or reinforcing a response when another stimulation/situation and the effect of becoming more likely in its presence. Ex) Child in habit of swearing now swears in a different situation, at home, and there will be a different result than at school. Parents are likely to punish/reprimand the child’s word choice. Stimulus discrimination is a response occurring to a stimulus which will be reinforced. Ex) When a child sears at school, stimulus of peers increases this behaviour as they reinforce it.
Chapter 16 - #4 What is a primary distinction between stimulus generalization involving a common-element stimulus class and stimulus generalization involving an equivalence class? Common-class: more unlearned; same object but different form; common characteristics Equivalence class: more learned; one common element but different items; no common characteristics
Chapter 16, question 11Briefly list four tactics for programming operant stimulus generalization. Give an example of each. 1. Train in the target situation.

2. Vary the Training Conditions.

3. Program Common Stimuli.

4. Train Sufficient Stimulus Exemplars.
Chapter 16, Question 16

1. Programming operant response generalization -


2. Vary the acceptable response during training -
Varying the responses that are acceptable during training.


3. Capitalize on behavioral principles and procedures -


Chapter 17 Question 1 Define rule and give an example that is not in this chapter. A rule describes a situation in which a behavior will lead to a consequence. Example: If you don’t take your shoes off when you enter the house, you will have to wash the floor.
Chapter 17 Question 14 In a couple of sentences, distinguish between rules that are often effective versus rules that are often weak or ineffective in controlling behaviour Rules that describe a behaviour specially is more likely to be followed than a rule that describes a vague behaviour. A rule that describes specific circumstances in which the behaviour should occur is more likely to be followed than a rule that describes the circumstances vaguely or not at all. Rules are likely to be followed if they identify behaviour for which the consequence are highly probable even though they might be delayed. Rules that describe sizeable consequences are likely to be effective. Rules that describe specific circumstance sand deadlines for specific behaviours that will leave to sizable and probable outcomes are often effective even when the outcomes are delayed.
Chapter 17 Question 17


goal setting is most effective when individuals are committed to the goals
public goals are more effective than private goals
CHAPTER 18 2. List four strategies that you might follow to influence the effectiveness of modeling as a behavior modification technique. - Arrange for peers to be models - Arrange for the modeled behaviour to be seen to be effective - Use multiple models - Combine modeling with rules
Chapter 18 4. What does symbolic modeling mean? Describe how this might explain how a city-dwelling child might learn to fear snakes. Modeling is a procedure that uses an individual to demonstrate a given behaviour to another individual to try to get that individual to take part in a similar behaviour. A type of modeling is symbolic modeling. Symbolic modeling is when the modeling procedure is demonstrated through the presentation of modeling scenes through films, videos, and other media. A city dwelling child might learn to fear snakes through symbolic modeling if they watch films of a child being eaten by snakes, attacked by snakes or poisoned by snakes while they are out of the city on vacation. In this example, through symbolic modeling the child may learn that if he leaves the city snakes will come and harm him.
10. “Generalized imitation: an individual after learning to imitate a number of behaviours, learns to imitate a new response on the first trial without reinforcement. Example: helping an individual who is terrified of water might involve gradually leading the individual by the hand into the shallow end of a swimming pool and providing support while the individual floats.”
Chapter 18 – question 12 12.) Describe each of the four proposed categories of situational inducement. Categories of Situational Inducement: o Rearranging surroundings to create an environment that promotes the behaviour through physical surroundings
E.g.) to increase study behaviour--clear desk of clutter and non-study related items, move the desk so it is facing the wall, as far away from the bed as possible, improve the lighting o Moving activity to a new location—move to a location that will be more conducive to the behaviour that you want to achieve.
E.g.) move to a library where the atmosphere is conducive to studying rather than get distracted at home by many other things o Relocating people– if you move people out of an environment that generally reinforces a problematic behaviour, then it will be less likely to occur. (generally a last resort)
E.g.) if two girls are always talking during class, move them apart so that they are less likely to talk during class. · Changing the time of the activity—certain stimuli/behavioural tendencies change in predictability with the passage of time
Chapter 18 8. What does the term physical guidance mean? How does it differ from gestural prompting? Physical guidance is the application of physical contact to induce an individual to go through the motions of a desired behavior. Gestural prompting are certain motions one may make to show an individual what to do without actually touching him or her.
Chapter 19, Question 1: How do many people who are not behaviourists or behaviour modifiers conceptualize motivation? Illustrate with an example. People who are not behaviourists or behaviour modifiers often conceptualize motivation as some “thing” within us that causes our actions. Claiming that “Howard is a good worker because he is highly motivated” is an example of this concept of motivation.
Chapter 19 – Question #2

What is the conceptual problem with the traditional view of motivation?
Chapter 19 3. Q) Describe three practical problems with conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behaviour a) First, the suggestion that the causes of behaviour are inside of us rather than in the environment might influence some to ignore the principles for changing behaviour described in earlier chapters and the enormous amount of data demonstrating that application of those principles can effectively modify behaviour. b) Second, conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behaviour may influence some to blame the individual for substandard performance by attributing this to a lack of motivation, or laziness, rather than trying to help such individuals to improve their performance. c) Third, conceptualizing motivation as an internal cause of behaviour may influence some to blame themselves for failures to emit various behaviours (e.g., "I just can't get motivated to go on a diet") rather than examining potential self-management strategies (see Chapter 26) for improving their performance.
Chapter 19 Question #5. Define motivating operation. Describe an example that illustrates both aspects of the definition.
Unit 19 12) Define Echoic, and describe and example that is not in this book.
Chapter 20 Question 3 Q: List the four phases of a behaviour modification program. A: The four phases of a behaviour modification program are the screening phase, the pre-program assessment phase, the treatment phase, and the follow-up phase
Chapter 20 7) What is the purpose of the follow-up phase of a behaviour modification program?*** “to determine whether the improvements achieved during treatment are maintained after the program’s termination.”Observations in the natural environment
Chapter 20 Question 12 List the five main types of indirect assessment procedures. 1. interviews with the client and significant others 2. questionnaires 3. role-playing 4. information from consulting professionals 5. client self-monitoring
Chapter 20 Qustion 9 Briefly distinguish between direct and indirect assessment procedures. Direct Assessment procedures are judgments based on information about a behavior by directly observing it whereas Indirect Assessment procedures are judgments based on information about a behavior by not directly observing that behavior.
Chapter 20 Question 22 – Describe two differences in the goals of a behavioral approach to assessment compared to a traditional approach? Behavioural approach – 1) To identify behavioural excesses or deficits 2) to idenfity environmental causes of current problem behaviours Traditional approach – 1) to diagnose or classify individuals 2) To identify intrapsychic or trait causes of behaviour
Chapter 20 #23 Describe a difference between the method of a behavioural approach compared to a traditional approach to assessment. A difference between the behavioural approach and the traditional approach to assessment is that in a behavioural approach the client is assessed through direct observation of specific behaviours while in the traditional approach direct assessment of intrapsychic factors and underlying traits is impossible(by definition).
CHAPTER 21 12. Name the six levels that the ABLA assesses. Level 1, imitation Level 2, position discrimination Level 3, visual discrimination Level 4, visual match-to-sample Level 5, auditory discrimination Level 6, auditory-visual combined discrimination
CHAPTER 21 17. Define continuous recording. Describe an example that is not in this chapter. Continuous recording is the recording of every instance of a behavior during a designated observation period. A continuous recording system is commonly used when successive responses are quite similar in duration. An example of a behaviour that could be measured using continuous recording is the frequency of swearing.
Chapter 21, querstion 22 Briefly describe momemtary time-sampling recording 22. “Momentary time sampling, a behaviour is recorded as occurring or not occurring at specific points in time, such as every hour on the hour rather than during specific brief intervals.”
Chapter 21 - Question 24 24. In a sentence or two, what do we mean by interobserver reliability? (Describe in words. Don’t just give the procedures for calculating an IOR.)

Chapter 22, Question 4: Define dependent variable, and give an example. In research terminology, the measure of behaviour is referred to as the dependent variable. In the example of Kelly, who underwent a treatment program to improve her frequency of successfully completing mathematics problems in her daily math class, correctly completing math problems was the dependent variable.

Chapter 22 Question 6. Q) Define internal validity. A) “A study or experiment is said to have internal validity if it convincingly demonstrated that the independent variable caused the observed change in the dependent variable.”
Chapter 22 Question #7. Define External validity Question #7. External validity is extent to which a finding of a study or experiment can be generalized to other behaviours, individuals, settings and treatments
Chapter 22 Question 22. With reference for an example, briefly describe an alternating-treatment design. What is another name for this design? Explain when and why that name might be preferred.

Chapter 23 1) A functional assessment of the causes of a problem behaviour involves asking what two questions? 1) What are the antecedents of the behaviour? 2) What are the immediate consequences of the behaviour?
Chapter 23 #2:Briefly describe three ways to discover controlling variables of problem behaviour
Chapter 23 Question 5 Describe three limitations of functional analyses. 1. Many behaviors occur at frequencies of less than one per day so this form of analysis would take a great deal of time before sufficient data can be obtained to draw valid conclusions. 2. This type of analysis cannot be applied to extremely dangerous behaviors, such as suicide threats. 3. This type of analysis requires scheduling a number of observational sessions making the expense and personnel requirements prohibitive.
a) whether attention reliably follows the behavior B) Whether the individual looks at or approaches a caregiver just before engaging in the behaviour. C) Whether the individual smiles just before engaging in the behavior
Chapter 23 Question 12 What is a strong indicator that problem behaviour is being maintained as a way of escaping from demands? Give and example illustrating this indicator. The individual engaged in the behaviour only when certain types of requests are made. For example, when requested to answer difficult questions, some children might engage in tantrums that are strengthened the withdrawal of the request.
Chapter 23 #14 What are the two main indicators that a problem behaviour is a respondent behaviour that is elicited by prior stimuli(versus operant behaviour being maintained by reinforcing consequences). Give an example The two main indicators that a problem behaviour is a respondent behaviour that is elicited by a prior stimuli are that the problem behaviour consistently occurs in a certain situation or in the presence of certain stimuli and that it is never followed by any clearly identifiable reinforcing consequence. An example would be a guy being rude to his sister every time his guys friends are over.
Chapter 24 1. How does a behavior modifier evaluate the importance of a problem? By asking two questions: Will solving the problem lead to less aversiveness or more positive reinforcement for the clients or others? And will solving the problem be likely to give rise directly or indirectly to other desirable behaviors? If either of the answers is no then you could reconsider your involvement with the problem.
CHAPTER 24 10. If you are thinking of capitalizing on antecedent control, what six categories should you consider? Can you use: - Rules - Goals - Modeling - Physical Guidance - Situational inducement (rearrange the surrounds, move the activity to a new location, relocate people, or change the time of the activity) - Motivating operations
Chapter 24 15. What is a behavioral contract? (Answer page 301) A behavioural contract is a written agreement that provides a clear statement of what behaviours of what individuals will produce what reinforcers and who will deliver those reinforcers. A behavioral contract can be used between two or more individuals, such as between a teacher and students, parents and child, behaviour modifier and client.
Chapter 24 16. What is a treatment contract and what should it clearly outline? A treatment contract is a written agreement between the client and the behavior modifier. It clearly outlines the objectives and methods of treatment, the framework of the service to be provided, and contingencies for remuneration that may be forthcoming to the behavior modifier.
Chapter 25 Question 1 - What are tokens?

Chapter 25.
2.) What is a token economy?
Chapter 25, Question 4: List at least five settings in which token economies have been used. Token economies have been used in psychiatric wards, institutions and classrooms for persons with developmental disabilities, classrooms for children and teenagers with attention- deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), normal classroom settings ranging from preschool to college and university, homes for troubled children, prisons, the military, wards for the treatment of persons with drug addiction or alcoholism, nursing homes, and convalescent centers.
Chapter 25 – Question #5
Chapter 25 7. Q) List and briefly describe six initial steps involved in setting up a token economy. a) Deciding on target behaviours. This involves deciding on and clearly defining the target behaviours “so that the students know what behaviours are expected of them and so that you can reinforce those behaviours reliably when they occur.” b) Taking baselines. Record data on the target behaviour before the implementation of the behaviour modification program so its effectiveness can be properly assessed. c) Selecting backup reinforcers. This involves deciding on what can be purchased with tokens obtained during the program. d) Selecting types of tokens used. “In general, tokens should be attractive, lightweight, portable, durable, easy to handle, and, of course, not easily counterfeited.” e) Identifying available help. “Help might be obtained from a number of sources: (a) people already assigned to work with the individuals of concern (e.g., nurse's aides, teaching assistants), (b) volunteers (e.g., homemakers, senior citizens, members of civic organizations and community action groups), (c) behaviourally advanced individuals within the institution (e.g., older students assigned to help younger students), and (d) members of the token economy itself.” f) Choosing locations. If possible, choose a location which suites the needs of your token economy, such as having a larger classroom with movable desks when group work is required.
Unit 25 22) What is one precaution to help ensure high ethical standards for a token economy? One precaution to help ensure high ethical standards for a token economy is to make the system completely open to public scrutiny, this provides a sense of accountability to those administering the treatment.
Chapter 26 - #1 What do people seem to mean when they talk about will power? Is willpower a useful concept? Why or why not? They describe willpower as some magical force within us that is responsible for overcoming problems. It is not a useful concept to use because people fail to describe how to obtain willpower. They fail to analyze the other factors that cause problems.
26 – 11. How does this book define commitment? Pg. 324 Commitment to change refers to your statements or actions that indicate that it is important to change your behaviour, that you recognize the benefits of doing so, and that you will work toward doing so.
Chapter 26 Question 12 Describe five steps that you could take to strengthen and maintain your commitment to a program of self control 1. List all the benefits for changing your behaviour. Write them out and post them in a conspicuous space.
Chapter 26, Question 16

Chapter 26 18) Define mastery criterion, and describe an example that is not in the text. Mastery criterion is “performance requirements for practicing a skill so that if the criteria are met, the behaviour has been learned” (p. 328). For example, hitting three “out-of-the-park” hits in baseball in a row.
Chapter 26 Question 22 Describe 3 different ways of arranging for reinforcers to be received in a self control program in a sentence or two for each.*** 1. By asking others to manage reinforcers for you is an effective way to receive reinforcers. In an example, Mary decided to start a jogging program where she would get money immediately after jogging as well as a social activity with her husband and if she met her goal, her husband would dispense the reinforce. 2. You could remind yourself of delayed natural consequences for a behavior immediately after it occurs. For example, Christmas shopping….if you start buying earlier in the year you can take advantage of sales and not so crowded malls! 3. Individuals can manage consequences for themselves, for their own behavior
Chapter 26 Question 27 Briefly describe two possible causes of relapse in consequences, and indicate how each might be handled. 1. Failure to incorporate everyday rewards into your program may cause decreased enthusiasm as the extra work of recording, graphing, etc become burdensome, so to handle this -- link your self-control program to everyday rewarding activities, ie. to get exercise if you like to watch videos, is to walk to the video store each time. 2. Consequences that are only cumulatively significant are easy to ignore once you have reached your goal, so to prevent a relapse - set specific dates for postchecks and list specific strategies to follow if the postchecks are unfavourable, ie. weigh yourself.
Chapter 27 Question 1 – What are cognitive processes? Cognitive processes refer to covert verbalization and/or imagery that are frequently called believing, thinking, expecting or perceiving.
Chapter 27 question 2 For what do the letters ABCT stand for? Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies
Chapter 27 #6 - Briefly, what is cognitive restructuring? Cognitive restructuring is referred to as strategies for recognizing maladaptive thinking and replacing it with adaptive thinking. It deals mainly with the clients verbal behaviour and imagery.
Chapter 27, Question 10 – Describe three major components of Beck’s cognitive therapy. 10. First, clients identify the dysfunctional thoughts and maladaptive assumptions that might be causing debilitating emotions. This is usually accomplished a series of visualizations exercise and easily answered questions.
CHAPTER 27 13. Briefly list five steps of self-instructional training that Meichenbaum and others used with children. 1. Adult demonstrates self-instructing. 2. Child performs while adult verbalizes. 3. The child performs the task and verbalizes out loud. 4. Overt self-instructions fade. 5. Task Performance is performed with covert self-instructions.
Chapter 28 1. What are empirically supported therapies (ESTs)? (Answer page 356) ESTs are therapies that have proved to be effective in scientifically conducted trials. They are behavioural or cognitive behavioural treatments, primarily because the behavioural approach emphasizes basing treatments on well-established principles, measuring the outcomes of treatments in objectively defined behaviours, and altering treatments that are not producing satisfactory results.
Chapter 28 2. Why do empirically supported therapies (EST’s) often turn out to be behavioral or cognitive-behavioral therapies? EST’s often turn out to be behavioral or cognitive-behavioral therapies because the behavioral approach emphasizes basing treatments on well-establishing principles, measuring the outcomes of treatment in objectively defined behaviors, and altering treatments that are not producing satisfactory results.
Chapter 28 Question 3 – What is a specific phobia? 3. “An intense, irrational, incapacitating fear of a stimulus class is called a specific phobia.”
Chapter 28 5. What is a fear hierarchy? A fear hierarchy is a list of fear eliciting stimuli arranged in order from the least to the most fear eliciting. It is used in systematic desensitization which is a procedure for overcoming phobias by successively imagining things in a fear hierarchy.
Chapter 28, Question 6: Define systematic desensitization. Systematic desensitization is a procedure for overcoming a phobia by having a client in a relaxed state successively imagine the items in a fear hierarchy (a list of fear- eliciting stimuli arranged in order from the least to the most fear- eliciting).
Chapter 28 – Question #7 – Using an example briefly describe three phases of systematic desensitization to a specific phobia. Three phases of systematic desensitization of a specific phobia. For example, the client may have social phobia.

Chapter 28 - #23 Briefly describe four types of eating disorders. With which has behaviour therapy been most effective? 1. Anorexia nervosa – having a negative look on body image which leads to reduced eating habits 2. Bulimia nervosa – having a negative look on body image but engaging in different eating behaviours (i.e., binge and purge) 3. Binge-eating disorder - excessive eating habits 4. Obesity – client has problem with eating and portion control; become severely overweight and may have health risks Behavioural therapy helped binge-eating and obesity the most by developing schedules for them to eat. Bulimia patients were resistant to treatment but they have been successful with some behavioural treatment. Anorexia is too hard to treat with behavioural therapy because the client’s self-image conflicts with their treatment.
Chapter 29 Question 2 Q: What are two other names for Pavlovian conditioning? A: Two other names for Pavlovian conditioning are classical or respondent conditioning.
Chapter 29, Question 6

Chapter 29 7) What is operant conditioning? Operant conditioning is “the process of strengthening a behaviour by reinforcing it or weakening it by punishing it” (p.401).
Chapter 29 Question 12 The publications of the early 1960s within the operant orientation seem to have been characterized by two features. What were they? (a) Much of it was done with very resistant populations, such as persons with intellectual disabilities, children with autism, and severely regressed psychiatric patients who had not received a great deal of successful input from traditional psychology, and (b) many of the applications took place in institutional or highly controlled settings.
Chapter 29, Question 15 – What is another name for operant orientation? Ans 15.The operant orientation is also referred as applied behaviour analysis.
CHAPTER 30 6. State two propositions on which behaviour modification is based. Behaviour modification is based on the assumptions that: (a) behaviour can be controlled and (b) it is desirable to do so to achieve certain objectives.
Chapter 30 8. From a behavioral point of view, what does the term ethics mean? (Answer page 387) From a behavioural point of view the term ethics refers to certain standards of behaviour that a culture developed to promote the survival of that culture. Ethical guidelines are important sources of behavioural control when immediate reinforcers influence an individual to behave in a way that leads to aversive stimuli for others. Sometimes these guidelines can be turned into rules. Example: “You should not steal”. When members of a culture learn to follow ethical guidelines, the guidelines exert rule-governed control over behaviour. This is one way that people learn to emit behaviour that is ethical and to refrain from behaviour that is unethical.
Chapter 30 Question 14 Discuss countercontrol. Why is it important? Countercontrol is the reciprocal of control, it is the influence the controlee has on the controller by virtue of access to suitable reinforcers. It is used to ensure that contingencies of reinforcement happen.*****
Chapter 30 18. In a sentence, what should be the characteristics of the intervention methods used by behaviour modifiers? “behaviour modifiers should use the most effective, empirically validated intervention methods with the least discomfort, and fewest negative side effects.”
Chapter 30, Question 19: Discuss three possible meanings of intrusive and restrictive interventions. Three possible meanings of intrusive and restrictive interventions are: 1. Interventions based on positive reinforcement are generally considered to be less intrusive and restrictive than interventions based on aversive control. That does not mean that aversive procedure should never be used. It might not be in the client’s best interest for behaviour modifiers to apply a slow-acting procedure if available research indicates that more aversive procedures would be more effective. 2. Intrusive and restrictive sometimes refer to the extent to which clients are given choices and allowed freedom of movement in a therapeutic environment. 3. Intrusive and restrictive sometimes refer to the extent to which consequences are deliberately managed as opposed to naturally occurring.
Chapter 30 – Question #20 – Describe a mechanism to facilitate informed consent. A mechanism to facilitate informed consent is the signing of a treatment contract that clearly outlines the objectives and methods of treatment, the framework for the service to be provided and contingencies for the remuneration that might be forthcoming to the therapist.