Understanding Behavioral Concepts and Intervention Methods

Question 1

Reward in the context of behaviour and psychology is synonymous to reinforcement describes an event that increases the probability or rate of a behaviour when the event is dependent on the behaviour. It is the procedure of providing consequences of a behaviour that increase or maintains the strength of the behaviour. Punishers on the other hand are the consequences of procedures or events that reduce the strength of a behaviour. Positive reinforcement involves the increase in the likelihood of occurrence of a behaviour due to a stimulus known as a positive reinforce. For example if a child cries and they are given food to eat, the behaviour of crying is likely to increase whenever they want food. In negative reinforcement, however a behaviour is strengthened by the removal of a stimulus or decrease in its intensity. Essentially, it is the change in behaviour in response to a stimulus causing an organism to try to escape. For instance, a child will cry when they are given a type of food they do not like. On the other hand, positive punishment refers to the addition of a stimulus to minimize the likelihood of a behaviour occurring for example if an individual eats a type of food and it negatively influences their health, they are likely not to eat the food again. Negative punishment on the other hand involves the removal of a stimulus to decrease the likelihood of occurrence of a behaviour, for instance a child who leaves food in their plate constantly may be served less food to limit them leaving food o the plate (Chance, 2003).

Question 2

Contingency contracting refers to different types of intervention methods that can be applied by parents, teachers, doctors or other people in the enhancement of their subjects’ behaviour through the increase of the desirable ones or the decreasing of the undesirable ones. Among the important points for contingency contract, include the actual contract, Challenges, Rewards, Documentation, and Evaluation process. The actual contract agreed on by both parties (for instance a teacher and a student regarding the behaviour that need to be changed by the student) and stating all the rules and requirement in a clear and concise manner so as to guide the subjects on what is exactly expected from them. The contract also has to have challenging events or activities, which prescribe the change being exploited for instance the desirable behaviour that the subject is expected to adhere to or the undesirable behaviour that they are expected to, shade off. The contract need also have the rewards for which the subjects receive upon the achievement of the challenges posed. This acts as motivation and ensures resilience towards achievement of required goals. Documentation of the contract and other related documents is also a key point in contingency contracting to help with the implementation process for both parties of the contract. Evaluation: the evaluation of a contingency contracting process is important to determine the efficiency of the contract as well as enable its enhancement and alteration for the maximum output of the contract (Mruzek et al., 2007).

Question 3

Pavlovian conditioning also known to as classical conditioning refers to a learning procedure where an unconditioned response is derived from a conditioned stimulus. A neutral stimulus (NS) is conditioned to elicit a response usually elicited by a potent stimulus. Among the variables those impacts the strength of this conditioning include: Contiguity, this refers to the period of time between the presentation of the Neutral Stimulus (NS) and the Unconditioned Stimulus (US) for the occurrence of the unconditioned response, the shorter the contiguity the stronger the conditioning process. Longer timing in contiguity limits the development of the association and thus a weaker conditioning process. Contingency in this context refers to the predictability of the occurrence of one stimulus from the presence of another. A high contingency means a high likelihood of occurrence of the UR after both the NS and the US and thus a stronger conditioning. The pairing of the CS and the US also impacts the strength of Pavlov conditioning in that the CS must be relatable to the US to impact the same response as that from the NS and impact the effectiveness of the entire conditioning process. The preparedness of the organism to learn is another variable impacting the strength of the conditioning process. This means that some responses can be conditioned much more readily to some stimuli. The type of association being conditioned influences how fast conditioning can be obtained and thus the strength of the overall connection (Mazur, 2013).

Question 4

Applied Behaviour Analysis refers to an applied science that uses research and data to impact behaviour of individuals. It is among the ways used in the treatment of patients of mental health and is key to take note of certain points for its successful accomplishment. The Patients need to accept and commit to the therapy, the success of the therapy is highly dependent on the identification of the patients’ behaviour, and applying strategies to change it as such the patients must accept and commit to the process. it must be combined with a functional analytic psychotherapy in order to evaluate the mental state of the patients and determine whether they have a fairly conventional and consistent behaviour warranting analysis. Exposure to challenges and challenging occurrences and events to be able to influence the changes in behaviour through reinforcement and punishment. Integration of the ABA into a multi-disciplinary model to enable the evaluation of subtle effects such as pharmacological interventions as well as individual responses to treatment such as does relations. An Anticedent manipulation is another key point especially when evaluating the treatment of children with mental health issues. Interventions may adjust the antecedent conditions so that the contextual variables that set the occasion for a target behaviour are eliminated and the adaptive replacement behaviour is more likely to occur. In this way, a more flexible measure for behaviour in individuals with mental health is established and thus much more effective and efficient results of the analysis (Harvey et al., 2009),

References

• Chance, P. (2003). Operant reinforcement, In P. Chance, Learning and behaviour (5th ed.) (pp133-187). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth / Thomson.
• Harvey, M., Luiselli, J. and Wong, S. (2009). Application of applied behaviour analysis to mental health issues. Psychological Services, 6(3), pp.212-222.
• Mazur, J.E. (2013). Basic principles of classical conditioning. In J. Mazur, Learning andbehaviour (7th ed.) (pp 51-78). Essex, England; Pearson.
• Mruzek, D., Cohen, C. and Smith, T. (2007). Contingency Contracting with Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Public School Setting. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 19(2), pp.103-114.