CHOICE AND THE FUNCTION OF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

严重的破坏性行为是美国约16万发育性残疾人融入社区的最大障碍之一。这是发育性残疾人留在州机构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。我们用来提高我们对破坏性行为的理解和处理能力的很有前途的方法叫做功能分析。功能分析的目标是为特定个体确定(A)可能和不可能发生异常行为的环境背景(即前置条件)，(B)强化或维持行为的后果，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使用单例设计系统地处理，并直接观察和测量它们的影响。最近的功能分析研究已经将破坏性行为概念化为选择反应。也就是说，个人有时会选择表现出破坏性的行为，而不是适当的行为，因为前者要么不那么费力，要么能产生更好的结果(即，产生更高的强化速度、幅度、质量或即时性)。与这一观点一致的是，通过适当的行为为个人提供更好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(例如增强率和质量)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一研究路线。

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.