L4: Behavioral assessment

• Behavioral Assessment


  A method used in the field of psychology to observe, describe, explain, predict and sometimes correct behavior. It can be useful in clinical, educational and industrial settings.

  
• Behavioral Assessments


  • Employers use behavioral assessments during their hiring process to help prioritize their list of candidates or guide a structured interview process. They are ultimately trying to predict if your behavior is a good fit for a specific role or broader workplace culture.
• Behavioral Assessment


  An assessment approach that focuses on the interactions between the situations and behaviors for the purpose of effecting behavioral change.

  
• Behavioral assessment tends to be restricted to samples of observable behavior.
• Functional Analysis


  The best known type of behavioral assessment, established by B.F. Skinner in the 1950s.

  
• Functional Analysis


  1. Observation of environmental events that serve to maintain behavior (usually problem behavior)

  2. The observations must be conducted within an experimental design (e.g., control of the environment and reinforcements)
• Negative Reinforcement


  The removal of a stimulus which causes a behavioural change, e.g. taking paracetamol to remove the negative effect of a headache
• Functional analysis involves hypothesis testing and is conducted by alternating control and treatment conditions to demonstrate that the effects are consistent.
• Functional analysis is frequently used with individuals whose communication skills are not well developed (e.g., children, individuals with developmental disabilities).
• Behavioral Interviews


  Clinician assesses behavior by asking questions and collecting information on the person's verbal and nonverbal responses.
• Behavioral Observation


  1. Psychologist collects verbal and nonverbal information about the person. It provides the clinician with an actual sample (rather than a self-report) of the problematic behavior.

  2. Naturalistic Observations (e.g. home, school, hospital)

  3. Controlled conditions (simulated or contrived conditions)
• Controlled Performance Technique


  An assessment procedure wherein the clinician places individuals in carefully controlled performance situations and collects data on their performance/behavior, their emotional reactions and/or various psycho physiological indices.

  
• Self-report/self-monitoring


  1. Clinical Interview

  2. Inventories and Checklists

  3. Self-monitoring: person records own behavior

  4. Self-report: responses to questionnaires that ask about a person's behavior
• Role-Playing Methods


  Patients are directed to respond the way they would typically respond if they were in a given situation.
• Cognitive-Behavioral Assessments


  An assessment approach recognizing that the person's thought or cognitions play an important role in behavior.
• Aspects Assessed in Behavioral Assessment

  • Appearance (physical description, dress, hygiene)
  • Verbal behavior (expressive language, receptive language, bizarre language)
  • Mood and affect (current mood, range of affect, intensity, appropriateness)
  • Cognitive processes (thought process, thought content, attention, orientation & memory, intellect and insight/judgment)
• 1. O-R-C Model


  • A useful model for conceptualizing a clinical problem from a behavioral perspective.
  • S - Stimulus or antecedent (situations) conditions that bring on the problematic behavior.
  • O - Organismic variables related to the problem behavior (e.g. stressors, emotional and cognitive variables)
  • R - Response or problematic behavior
  • C - Consequences of the problematic behavior

  
• Reactivity to measurement: the phenomenon in which a person's behavior changes by the mere fact that the behavior is being observed.

  
• Selection and training of observers is important for collecting reliable behavioral information.