CHOICE AND THE FUNCTION OF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

严重的破坏性行为是美国约16万发育性残疾人士融入社会的最大障碍之一，也是发育性残疾人士留在或被送回州立机构的最常见原因。这些问题每年造成的损失超过30亿美元。我们有希望提高我们对治疗破坏性行为的理解和能力的方法被称为功能分析。功能分析的目标是确定，对于一个给定的个体，(a)异常行为可能发生和不可能发生的环境背景（即，先决条件），(b)加强或维持行为的后果，以及(c)有效的治疗方法。在功能分析中，假设影响破坏性行为的变量被系统地操纵，使用单例设计，并直接观察和测量其影响。最近的功能分析研究从选择响应的角度将破坏性行为概念化。也就是说，个体有时会选择表现出破坏性行为，而不是适当的行为，因为前者要么不那么费力，要么会产生更好的结果（即，产生更高的强化率、强度、质量或即时性）。与这一观点一致的是，通过适当的行为为个体提供更多的选择机会往往会减少问题行为。该项目旨在通过检查(a)影响选择反应的变量（例如，强化率和质量）在维持破坏性行为中所起的作用以及(b)这些变量可用于提高治疗效果的程度来扩展这条研究线。

Severe destructive behavior represents one of the most significant barriers to community integration for approximately 160,000 persons with developmental disabilities in the U.S. It is the most common reason for an individual with developmental disabilities remaining in or being returned to a state institution. The annual cost of these problems exceeds 3 billion dollars. Our promising approach for improving our understanding of and ability to treat destructive behavior is called functional analysis. The goals of functional analysis are to identify, for a given individual, (a) the environmental contexts (i.e., antecedent conditions) in which aberrant behavior is likely and unlikely to occur, (b) the consequences that reinforce or maintain the behavior, and (c) effective treatments. During a functional analysis, variables hypothesized to affect destructive behavior are systematically manipulated using single-case designs and their effects are directly observed and measured. Recent functional analysis research has conceptualized destructive behavior in terms of choice responding. That is, individuals sometimes choose to display destructive rather than appropriate behavior because the former response class is either less effortful or it produces a better outcome (i.e., produces an increased rate, magnitude, quality, or immediacy of reinforcement). Consistent with this view, providing individuals with enhanced choice-making opportunities via appropriate behavior often decreases problem behavior. The project is designed to extend this line of research by examining (a) the role played by variables that affect choice responding (e.g., reinforcement rate and quality) in the maintenance of destructive behavior and (b) the extent to which these variables may be used to increase treatment effectiveness.