Chapter 8 Differential Reinforcement

Acceleration and deceleration of target behaviors are central to behavior therapy. Acceleration a behavior is to make a behavior occur more frequently or intensely, whereas decelerating a behavior is to decrease the frequently or intensity of a behavior. By employing methods that serve to either accelerate or decelerate a behavior, an individual can overcome acting out maladaptive or undesirable behaviors and promote the occurrence of adaptive or desirable behaviors. Acceleration behavior therapy employs two general mechanisms to accelerate target behaviors; stimulus control and reinforcement. Although these two distinct methods of accelerating target behaviors work to accomplish the same goal (i.e., increasing the frequency of the

The behaviors that are followed by my positive reinforcement are likely to be strengthened and repeated. When a child is expressing unfitting behaviors I use the redirection method. Once an issue arises, it is sometimes beneficial to avoid a struggle with the child by directing their attention elsewhere. I listen to the child to hear his or her point of view. Then I give children acceptable alternatives rather than telling them what they cannot choose. I also use reminders to guide the toddlers. They include walking feet when in the hallways and the classroom, inside voices, nice touches, and listening

1.5 - Explain why the least restrictive interventions should always be used when dealing with incidents of challenging behavior?

Multiple treatments have been established to treat escape maintained behavior. Escape extinction is often utilized in the treatment of behaviors that are maintained through the removal of demands. Escape extinction involves no longer allowing the delay, removal, or avoidance of demands contingent on the occurrence of the problem behavior (Iwata, Pace, Kalsher, Cowdery, & Cataldo, 1990). Escape extinction provides some advantages as it is easily compatible with other treatments, increasing the effectiveness of those treatments. However, escape extinction may have some disadvantages including that it may be difficult for those providing treatment to do so with high levels of integrity due to the effort involved in doing so. If treatment is not implemented consistently it may make it more difficult to implement extinction in the future (McConnachi & Carr, 1997). There may also be an increase in the targeted response and aggression following extinction (Lerman, Iwata, & Wallace, 1999). While extinction is effective there are associated side effects that are incompatible with wide spread use in many public settings such as classrooms. There is a need for

Reinforcement is an essential part in identifying and encouraging a certain behavior. In the most classic definition, positive reinforcement is a method of identifying to children which behaviors are acceptable and appropriate and which are not (Sigler, E. & Aamidor, S, 2005). Reinforcement is often given as praise for doing a certain task. As educators, saying “great job” or a simple word like “fantastic” are expressed towards students as praise. However, when a student is struggling and praise is given such as “you are doing so well”, the negative aspects of praise present themselves. The child is aware of the empty praise therefore it may work against the teacher if it is taken as a false

The purpose of timeouts in the behavior modification program is not intended or incorporated as a form

shoe tying). The authors stated that reinforcement is given when the last step meets criterion, then the next reinforcement is delivered with the last and next to last steps are completed to the master criterion (Cooper et al., 2007, p.443). For instance, the behavior analysts would conduct all the procedures of shoe tying except pulling the strings, leaving this procedure for the client to conduct). The advantages of backward chaining is receiving repetitive reinforcement of all behaviors increase the responses of the correct responses, and the disadvantage is that the number of responses may be limited in the earlier process (Cooper et al.,2007, p. 446). Therefore, it is deemed necessary for the behavior analyst to determine highly preferred reinforces to reduce the client’s passive participation in the intervention. In the past study, when the behavior analysts used

An important feature of behavioural therapy is its focus on current problems and behaviour, and on attempts to remove behaviour the patient finds troublesome. This contrasts greatly with psychodynamic therapy, where the focus is much more on trying to uncover unresolved conflicts from childhood (i.e. the cause of abnormal behaviour). Examples of behaviour therapy are aversion therapy and flooding. Aversion therapy is used when there are stimulus situations and associated behaviour patterns that are attractive to the client, but which the therapist and the client both regard as undesirable. This therapy involves associating such stimuli and behaviour with a very unpleasant unconditioned stimulus, such as an electric shock.

Based on review of the documentation submitted, as of a treatment plan review dated 08/26/2016, the member was able to complete a goal regarding an acceptable amount of noncompliant incidents in a monthly period, and those demonstrated a substantial decrease of noncompliance for the months prior. She was responding positively to consistent limit setting and structure/routine but it was noted that she will engage in more compliance as she tests individuals should she perceive them as weak. She was described as an individual who has learned through negative reinforcement that refusal of a directive will gain additional attention. The documentation reports that through the use of simple behavior modification techniques, such as timeout and selective ignoring, the member appears to be learning that she will not get attention or be allowed to escape a

Time out is a popular method of child rearing. Parents often search for effective and creative ways to deliver the lessons they intend to instill in their children. Some parents issue time-out intervals based on the type of behavior exhibited, while others do so based on chronological age. Researchers have evaluated such as release contingency time-outs, delivery of warnings during time outs and token system time outs. Donaldson, Vollmer, Yakich, and Van Camp (2013) aimed to evaluate compliance to verbal instruction to time-out, using a procedure designed to reduce the problem behavior while increasing compliance.

this is where the behavior is examined and changed by using reprimands or retraining. Finally,

Applications of behaviorism began in 1950s, but behaviorism was already influential in the 1920s. There are two main assumptions. The first is that behavior is a product of learning. The second is what has been learned can be unlearned. Behavior therapy seems like a very efficient therapy compared to insight therapy. For example, Coon describes a situation in which a client named Jay who only wanted to break his shoplifting habits. Instead of going back into his past, the therapist simply applied techniques to correct his behavior. Some of these techniques include aversion therapy, desensitization, token economics, and other techniques. Desensitization is when a therapist reduces a clients’ anxiety responses through counter conditioning. It was devised by Joseph Wolpe and consists of 3 steps. The therapist trains clients in deep muscle relaxation, and client tries to work through hierarchy, learning to remain relaxed while imagining each

Aversion therapy uses the behavioral approach principles that new behavior can be 'learnt' in order to overcome addictions, obsession. Because everyone responds differently to alcohol abuse treatment, no single type of treatment is guaranteed to be effective for everyone. Alcohol abuse aversion treatment is a means of helping the addict to not want to use alcohol because they have learned how to associate negative experiences with the use of alcohol. Certain medications can also be used to cause such negative effects making aversion therapy even more effective. This particular behavioral therapy works on the principle that all behavior is learned. It follows, then, that if all behavior is learned then it can be unlearned.

This essay examines phobias and addictions, how phobias can be developed through operant conditioning and how addictions can be developed through operant conditioning. This essay also examines the distinctions between classical and operant condition and examines “extinction” as it relates to psychological theory and how extinction is achieved in classical and operant

Relapse is a widely known study used for drug rehabilitation programmes. Relapse is the process of a previously extinct behaviour reoccurring. The increased number of resurgence of drug use leaves behaviourist with questions of the process that’s going behind this and how this could be resolved. Relevant studies are widely interested in why people have resurged back to drug use after they get treatment and experiments have been done starting with rat subjects to pigeon’s subjects to see what actually happens when people resurge back to their old behaviour of drug use or other addictions. There are three types of relapses, which include renewal, reinstatement and resurgence. For this study purpose, we are focusing on resurgence. Resurgence as stated by (Neil E et.al, 2013) is when a previously reinforced behaviour that had undergone extinction returns or resurges when a second behavior that replaced the first one itself undergoes extinction. Extinction on the other hand is commonly defined as when reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior is stopped, thus causing a decrease in the rate of that behavior” (Cooper et.al, 1987). Thus, when you stop giving reinforcers, the behaviour decreases until it comes to a complete stop and extinction is at play. The Resurgence effects have been suggested as a possible cause of relapse to drug abuse with a decrease in the availability of alternative nondrug reinforcers (Podlesnik et.al, 2006). So, when alternative