PSYC 164

The Roots of Behaviour Management

Functional Contextualism, Relational Frame Theory and Applied Behaviour Analysis

FUNCTIONAL CONTEXTUALISM

RELATIONAL FRAMES THEORY

APPLIED BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS

The aim of this course, and of behaviour analysis in general, is to teach you how to identify and analyze your behaviour, and the behaviour of others. This analysis allows you to understand the function of the behaviour in context, and then adjust the function/context to bring about positive, and meaningful change.

Before we learn these principles, it’s important to understand from where applied behaviour analysis (ABA) draws its inspiration. So let’s start at the roots: Functional Contextualism.

LANGUAGE Language is nothing short of amazing. It allows

us to establish communities,

transfer knowledge, understand history, share

emotions, share ideas…etc. etc. I’m a big fan.

Words. Yay.

BUT…

One downside of language is that it is often binary in nature (happy/sad, boy/girl, functional/dysfunctional) and this limits the scope of our thinking in ways that can be quite damaging. And modern psychology has encouraged us to think of certain thoughts, feelings, and behaviours as “broken”, “maladaptive” or “dysfunctional” and in need of “fixing.” As an introduction to functional contextualism and behaviour analysis, I’d like to invite you to think of your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviours in a slightly different way…

The Case of the Flattened Dump truck So…recently my husband backed over our little guy’s dump truck with the car. This didn’t go over well. In fact, I was told I couldn’t take a picture of Niko’s dump truck because it would make you guys “too sad.” Not wanting to inflict this kind of pain on you people, I chose not to post the picture. You’re welcome. So, the dumper busted off, the front axle broke, and the cab was impressively squashed. Now, here’s the question…is this dump truck “broken,” “maladaptive” or “dysfunctional?”

 “Dumpy” before the accident.

The Answer?

• No. The dumper is now used effectively as a planter to grow basil, and the truck is now used as a flat bed trailer, which is pulled behind a tractor and used as a “logging” truck. The truck continues to be functional and adaptive, just in new contexts.

• And this is at the heart of Functional Contextualism. Its premise is that all thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviours are functional within certain contexts. Taking this away from “Dumpy” and toward you as a person, this means that no single thought, idea, feeling, or behaviour you have is inherently dysfunctional, bad or maladaptive – what it is or isn’t depends entirely on the context. And whether the function of that thought or feeling or behaviour is harmful or damaging to your life very much depends on your personal contexts.

THE “F” WORD

So, in the world of functional contextualism and behaviour analysis, there is no focus on “good/bad” thoughts, “functional/dysfunctional” behaviour or “adaptive/maladaptive” beliefs or people in need of “fixing”. Rather, the word of the day is:

…and we analyze the function of that behaviour in its current context. If the function brings you quality of life and has you moving toward your goals, great! If it is decreasing your quality of life and moving you further from your goals, then we implement ways to change the function or context.

In summary…

• No single thought, feeling or behaviour is inherently good/bad • Because language is binary, we have come to set arbitrary rules about

what is functional or dysfunctional • When people view their own thoughts, feelings or behaviour through

that lens, it can make them feel isolated, or wrong or maladaptive, when they aren’t.

• Everyone has a variety of thoughts, feelings and behaviours throughout the day and some of those add value to our day and some don’t

• The important thing is to look at the function of those thoughts, feelings and behaviours in the current context and determine if they add or reduce value to your life.

• If they reduce value, then the idea is to modify the context, or change the way you relate to the thought or feeling.

Relational Frame Theory

• Essentially, this studies how language affects behaviour. In other words, how we “talk” to ourselves about our own thoughts and feelings and others’ behaviour in order to figure out how to react.

• From this perspective, changing our framing, changes our experience.

Let’s look at an example…

Example

• Let’s say you’ve just failed a mid-term.

• Scenario 1:

Your thoughts: I’m so stupid. I procrastinated, and didn’t study hard enough and now I’m never going to get a good grade in this course. I blew it. Now there’s no point in even taking this course.

The feelings elicited by these thoughts are shame, fear, anxiety about the future, stress, defeat. You might react on a behavioural level by going home and binge-watching your favourite series, skipping future classes, dropping the course, developing exam anxiety. Not a good scenario.

Example Cont’d

Scenario Two:

Thoughts: Well, that sucked. But I still have two tests and the final paper, so if I do well on those I can still pull off a reasonable grade, and even if I end up with a B+, still better than a D if I don’t try.

Emotions: A little sadness, probably, but also optimism and resolve to do better. Emotions aren’t as down or panicked as in scenario 1.

Behaviour: Get organized and set up to do better on the next test. Work harder on the paper, start studying earlier.

So…

Simply by changing the way we frame the situation with language (our thoughts), we can elicit different emotional responses and behaviour that move us closer to our goal (passing the course) vs. moving us away from our goal (failing the course).

I use the word simple, but like any behaviour, this one takes a lot of practice. But throughout the course we’ll be learning techniques to help us remove our attachment to these self statements and to commit to behaviours that bring value to our lives.

Applied Behaviour Analysis

• Looks at the patterns between a person’s behaviour and the events in the environment (both internal and external) that come before and after that behaviour.

• If we can establish those links, we can manipulate them to bring about change.

• We try to avoid the language traps surrounding behaviour, to try and remain objective.

What is Behaviour in Behaviour Management?

• The aim of this course and of Applied Behaviour Analysis, is to teach you how to identify and analyze your behaviour and the behaviours of others, and ultimately, to bring about positive change in your life. In order to do this, we first have to explore what is meant by “behaviour.”

(man, that is a LOT of “behaviour” )

For Example…

• In everyday language we talk about people “flirting”, “helping”, acting “happy”, “mad”, etc. and for general conversation, these terms are descriptive enough to give us a general impression of what the person was up to. But how helpful are they, really?

• Take a moment to write down what YOU mean when you say that a person was behaving in an “aggressive” manner.

• If we were to match your list of behaviours against those of your peers, you might observe that your list is almost identical to some, and completely different from others. This is to be expected, because we’ve all grown up with different families, different peers, different social norms, cultural influences and gender roles. All of these things influence what we might put on this list. However, if we’re trying to change a specific behaviour (for example, the person stands within one foot of the other person and places his face only inches from the other person’s face) a label such as “aggressive” is far too general. The goal in operationally defining a “behaviour” is to make it so exact that anyone, regardless of upbringing, gender norms, cultural influences and peer influences immediately understands when an example of that behaviour has occurred. To help us, behaviour analysts have developed six rules of thumb for defining behaviour and how to measure it.

Psychology 164: D01/D02 What is Behaviour?

PLEASE WATCH THIS BEFORE PROCEEDING!

This kid cracks me up, and the dog is awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpSfThUv_pc

Six Characteristics of Behaviour

1. What people do and say

When we look at the video, we could use the label “tantrumming” to describe the toddler’s behaviour.

If we want to change this behaviour, though, we will need to specifically identify what the toddler is doing and saying in order to be clear. Therefore, we might say:

The toddler falls on his back, cries and kicks his legs against the floor.

This is more descriptive and active and defines the behaviour in terms of what is actually happening before us,

without speculation or interpretation.

2. Has dimensions There are three dimensions of behaviour that we typically measure:

Frequency: the number of times the behaviour occurs (how many times did he fall to the floor?)

Duration: for how long was the behaviour occurring from the time it started until the time it stopped (you would measure from the time the toddler falls to the floor until he gets up as duration)

Intensity: this measures the force of the behaviour (we would make a rating scale from 1-5, level 1 being mild and 5 being extreme with specific behaviours listed for each level). This tantrum would likely be rated a 2 on a typical intensity scale.

3. Can be observed, described and recorded by others or by the person engaging in the behaviour

• The purpose of describing behaviour in terms of what people do and say is so that either the person themselves or others can record its dimensions.

• The little boy’s behaviour on the video meets this criteria as we can observe him falling to the ground, we can describe how he kicks his legs against the floor and we can record how frequently, how long and how intensely the behaviour occurs.

4. Has impact on the environment (physical or social)

• Let’s say I kick a rock that is in front of me on the side walk. The rock, in response to the force of my kick, moves forward with force and stops about 4 feet in front of me. My behaviour (kicking the rock) has had an impact on my physical environment (the rock has changed position).

• I say “hello” to a friend on campus and they reply with “hello”. I’ve had an impact on my social environment (my friend saying hello occurred following my behaviour)

• If we think about the video, the toddler had a physical impact (compression of carpet when he threw himself down and kicked, fabric on his clothes became wet with tears) and a social impact (parent and dog left following each occasion of falling to the ground and crying)

5. Behaviour is lawful

• When we say “lawful” we’re referring to the fact that interactions between behaviour and the environment follow very particular patterns. These patterns are based on the relationship between three important pieces:

• A – antecedent. This is whatever is happening in the environment before the behaviour occurs.

• B – behaviour. The behaviour itself.

• C – consequence. What happens in the environment directly following the behaviour.

• Behaviour analysis is all about figuring out the laws or patterns that are operating on a person’s behaviour, then changing one or more of the agents to alter the pattern.

• If we look at the video, the pattern is A (presence of parent and dog) B (falling to ground, crying and kicking) and C (parent and dog walk out of sight)

6. May be overt or covert

• Overt: behaviour that can be observed by others • (e.g. someone cuts you off in traffic and you yell a profanity)

• Covert: behaviour that can only be observed by

the person engaging in the behaviour • (e.g. someone cuts you off in traffic and you think a profanity)

• In the video, the behaviours we are observing are overt. If the toddler is thinking something, we don’t have access to that behaviour at this time.

Summary

• So, in order for a behaviour to be considered a behaviour in behaviour analysis (wow, that’s a lot of behavior….again!) it must have those six characteristics.

Activity: Not for marks…just for practice

• Please watch the following clip from The Big Bang Theory: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xusemZImx3c • 1. List three specific behaviours that make up what we

would refer to as “Amy’s Anger” (make sure you don’t use any labels)

• 2. Describe the impact of “Amy’s Anger” on her environment – both physical and social (again, be specific)

• 2. Describe how her behaviour meets the criteria of “lawful” by briefly describing the pattern that you see between A,B and C. If you want feedback, post your answers to the Discussion Section.

Responsibility for this Module…

• This material will be incorporated into the first assignment, which combines concepts taken from this module and Module 2. So, when you’re ready, please progress to Module 2.