Unit 6 Discussion reply

I don’t understand this Psychology question and need help to study.

Respond to two classmates’ primary posts by reviewing the operational definition provided by your peer, watching the link, and collecting data using the same type of measurement your peer identified. In your response, indicate the occurrence of the target behavior that you recorded. Discuss whether you obtained the same level of occurrence. Indicate whether you feel as though this is the best method of measuring the identified target behavior.

Peer 1

Operationally defining target behaviors is crucial to the accuracy and integrity of the program being developed for behavior change. An operational definition should be clear, complete, and objective (Steege, Pratt, Wickerd, Guare, & Watson, 2009). Others who observe the behavior should be able to identify it as it occurs using the provided operational definition.

Here is the link to a video I found for discussion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q5FdzHaOuE&feature=youtu.be

Tantrum: Any instance that includes 2 or more of: crying with tears, dropping to the floor/ground, screaming in higher than normal conversational volume, and/or attempting to or making contact with person or object with his hand from 6in or further, lasting for longer than 5 seconds.

*A break in tantrum behavior for 10 or more seconds should be recorded as separate occurrences

I feel, with so many observable behaviors occurring during what is defined as tantrum, frequency of and duration data of the tantrum episode would be best to measure- with the information I have. However, if crying, dropping, screaming, or hitting are occurring outside of tantrum it may be best to record each of these individually. Each target behavior would need its own operational definition and method of measurement. For this purpose, I do not feel recording frequency of each would produce the most accurate data. The tantrums should be recorded by frequency and duration.

During this video, the frequency would be 1 and the duration would be 3:53 from the information available. However, since I was not able to observe if the tantrum continued, I stopped duration recording at the 3:53 mark and made the assumption the tantrum remained stopped for at least 10 seconds- the video only shows 3 seconds of the tantrum ceasing.

Steege, M. W., Pratt, J. L., Wickerd, G., Guare, R., Watson, T. S. (2009). Conducting School-Based Functional Behavioral Assessments. Third Edition. [Purdue University Global Bookshelf].

Peer 2

Hello all!

When assessing a target behavior we must first operationally define the behavior in terms where more than one observer is in agreement on the occurrences or non-occurrences of that behavior. Operational definitions describe target behaviors clearly and objectively to facilitate consistent and accurate measurement (Steege, et al., 2019). The video in which I chose depicts a child engaging in tantrum behaviors that include head banging behaviors. Because I have only been able to observe this particular instance I do not know whether or not the child engages in tantrum behaviors without the head banging. I would want to track “tantrums” and “head banging” as separate events, these could happen together or separately. For this discussion let’s focus on the head banging behaviors. I would operationally define “head banging behaviors” as “when the child engages in moving his head forwards or backwards to make contact with various surfaces which produces an audible sound”.

In terms of measurement for this behavior I would choose to do a frequency count per episode of behavior. The obtained data are expressed in terms of rate: number of occurrences/unit of time (minutes, seconds, days) (Steege, et al., 2019). Because the child’s head banging behaviors are not occurring in a rapid rate of succession I believe accurate data could be taken on individual instances per episode. I would also want to track the duration of the episode. Longer episodes allow for more opportunity to engage in head banging, therefore the frequency count could be higher than a shorter episode. The overall goal would be to decrease the average amount of head banging per episode. In the video the episode duration would be 1:11. Head banging frequency count would be 17.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WTHMIJ_61I

Steege, M. W., Pratt, J. L., Gresham, F. M., Watson, T. S., Wickerd, G., & Guare, R. (2019). Conducting school-based functional behavioral assessments: a practitioners guide. New York: The Guilford Press.