Applied Behavior Analysis Commons^™

Minorities' Perceptions Of Child Protective Services, Vernae Elaine Hicks

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The study examined minority persons’ views and experiences with Child Protective Services (CPS) in the community. This study used a qualitative design with face‑to‑face interviews with 12 participants in the community. This study used the “Post‑Positivist” data analysis, which is qualitative in evaluation and explained each participant’s subjective reality.

The study found that most participants were satisfied with the results and were dissatisfied with the process in and of itself. Overall the study found that most participants felt that there was some sort of a disconnect with social workers in reference to cultural competency. Miscommunication between the social workers at …

Piloting A Screening Tool For Eating And Eating-Related Behavior, Michael N. Reynolds

Dissertations

Obesity is a common medical condition associated with negative health and social outcomes. Obesity has a primary malleable behavioral cause, eating more calories than are metabolized. While metabolic rate is malleable with exercise, eating can more quickly add calories than exercising can subtract them. In the past, behavioral weight-loss treatment studies relied on multi-component package interventions that have shown reliable patterns of participant weight-loss during treatment and weight-regain in follow-up. Those findings could be conceptualized as an ABA withdrawal design, eating behavior returns to baseline after the prosthetic contingencies of the treatment study are withdrawn. We must develop ways to …

Generalization Across Modalities Of Expressive And Receptive Language Acquisition Through The Use Of Multiple Exemplar Training And Errorless, Melinda Galbato

Theses and Dissertations

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to display deficits with language acquisition and generalization of language skills after acquisition. Discrete trial teaching (DTT) includes general procedures used to teach language acquisition skills (such as receptive and expressive language) to children with ASD. Multiple exemplar teaching (MET) is a specialized type of DTT that includes multiple discriminative stimuli used during teaching trials, as opposed to only one target during the initial teaching. This present study assessed the efficacy of a general DTT procedure and MET for acquisition and generalization of two modalities of language skills: receptive and expressive. Goals of …

Individual Differences In Adolescents’ Driving Practice During The Learner Stage, Yinan Zhao

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The implementation of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) policies has reduced the rate of car crashes among adolescents. However, limited research has focused on adolescents’ supervised driving during the learner permit stage of GDL. The study aimed to describe supervised driving practice during the learner permit stage and to test predictors of individual differences in the amount and the quality of supervised driving. 183 adolescents (M age = 16.4 years, 54.1% female) and their parents (84.1% mothers) participated. Adolescents reported driving an average of 25 minutes per day. Adolescents living in single-parent households, with less family income, and with a …

Initiating Conversation By A Kindergarten-Aged Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Eliana A. Segal

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have social skill deficits that are often manifested in a failure to achieve normal back-and-forth conversation. They rarely initiate social interactions and often show little responsiveness to others. This can extinguish the social initiations of their peers, leading to great difficulty making friends. The purpose of the present study was to teach a child with ASD at an inter-professional autism clinic how to initiate and reciprocate a social conversation. A prompt fading procedure was implemented during training sessions to build a set of social skills into the child’s repertoire. The intervention provided social attention …

Refining Noncontingent Reinforcement Treatments Using Behavioral Momentum Theory, Valdeep Saini

Theses & Dissertations

One of the most effective and commonly prescribed treatments for children with autism and/or an intellectual disability who engage in severe destructive behavior is called noncontingent reinforcement (NCR). During NCR, the consequence that previously reinforced destructive behavior is delivered on a time-based schedule, independent of destructive behavior, and the contingency between destructive behavior and its reinforcer is discontinued (operant extinction; EXT). Conceptual and quantitative derivations of behavioral momentum theory (BMT) suggest that certain aspects of NCR may inadvertently promote persistence of destructive behavior, thereby prolonging the treatment process. Guided by Shahan and Sweeney’s (2011) model of resurgence based on BMT, …

Effects Of Modeling Varied Responses And Programming Lag Contingencies On Varied Responding During Discrete-Trial Instruction, Sean P. Peterson

Theses & Dissertations

Children with autism often require direct instruction to learn skills (e.g., discrete-trial instruction [DTI]). Despite its advantages, DTI has been criticized for producing rote responding (e.g., Cihon, 2007). Although there is little research supporting this claim, if true, this may be problematic given the propensity of children with autism to engage in restricted and repetitive behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In Experiment 1, we evaluated the effects of modeling rote versus varied target responses during DTI on producing varied responding and efficiency of skill acquisition in learning intraverbal categorizations. For all four children, all increases in varied responding were temporary, …

Using Systematic Instruction To Teach Science To Students With Severe Disabilities, Anna E. Greene

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Science content is still a commonly over-looked academic content area for students with severe disabilities despite recent research. The purpose of this study was to show that students with severe disabilities can learn science content in a whole group setting when taught using applied behavior analytic principles, such as prompting and fading techniques. Four elementary-aged students with severe disabilities between 1^st and 5^th grade were taught science content using group lessons and effects were measured by a multiple baseline design across units. Participants were taught content from three different units: Energy, weather, and plants; the science content selected …

Generalization Of Joint Attention: Using Parent Child Interaction Therapy To Program Social Skills In Children With Developmental Disorders, Thomas E. Rigg

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Generalization of social behaviors is a vital component of human behavior. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often show symptomology that includes impairment in social behavior and failure to generalize behavior on the whole. Initiation of joint attention is a social behavior that can be understood as a behavior cusp and worthy of intervention to promote development. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy has been studied in recent years for its efficacy in treating some dimensions of Autism Spectrum Disorder in children and adolescence. The current study sought to explore the efficacy of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy in promoting the generalization of initiation of joint …

Effect Of Distance Caregiver Coaching On Functional Skills Of A Child With Traumatic Brain Injury, Michelle R. Witt

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Brain injury is a major public health concern affecting nearly 5 million Americans annually with a cost exceeding $60 billion in the United States. Acquired and traumatic brain injuries cause physical, cognitive and social deficits resulting in behavioral, affective, cognitive, and physical changes. Though the biomechanical injury may be the initial source of the behavioral changes, environmental factors frequently contribute to maintaining maladaptive behaviors. Behavioral and affective changes in the person with a brain injury are frequently cited as the most distressing issues for caregivers, and their need for education and training is well documented. Interactions between caregivers and persons …

Inter-Professional Collaboration: The Impact Of Serial Versus Merged Treatment On The Behavior Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Robyn Starry

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Interdisciplinary collaboration is an innovative, resourceful approach to healthcare intended to positively affect patient outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to determine the efficacy of the serial exposure to three treatments, Applied Behavior Analysis, Speech Language Pathology, and Occupational Therapy, in comparison with an exposure to a merge of these treatments on child outcomes. During the serial treatment phases of intervention, three licensed professionals implemented core techniques from their respective disciplines. During merged treatment phases, a graduate clinician combined and implemented techniques from all three fields: differential attention, request sequences, sensory exposure, verbal/tactile cueing for postural alignment/control and …

The Effects Of Virtual Coaching On Olympic Lift Performance, Julia M. Santos

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Coaching in many forms, the most prevalent being in vivo coaching, helps to improve the performance of athletes across sports and exercise. The most natural next step in coaching is coaching through technology as opposed to in person; also known as virtual coaching. The present study examined the relative utility of two forms of virtual coaching on improving Olympic lift performance; video modeling and video feedback. A multiple baseline design across participants was used where one group of participants received the video modeling intervention first, then video feedback, then both, while the second group received the video feedback intervention first, …

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Informed By Applied Behavior Analysis For Developmental Delay: Parent And Sibling Coaching With Setting Generalization, Mariel S. Cannady

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a well-established, empirically-supported treatment for young children with disruptive behaviors. PCIT was initially designed for treatment of typically-developing children with oppositional and disruptive behaviors. There is emerging support for PCIT as a treatment for behavior challenges seen in children with developmental delays. However, some modifications may be needed to respond to the severity of delay, parent treatment goals, and the function of the challenging behavior. Using a non-concurrent multiple-baseline experimental design, the current study examined the effectiveness of a modified PCIT approach for a preschool child with global developmental delay and co-occurring behavior problems. Modifications …

Suffering In Silence: Investigating The Role Of Fear In The Relationship Between Abusive Supervision And Defensive Silence, Christian Kiewitz, Simon Lloyd D. Restubog, Mindy K. Shoss, Patrick Raymund James M. Garcia, Robert L. Tang

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

Drawing from an approach-avoidance perspective, we examine the relationships between subordinates’ perceptions of abusive supervision, fear, defensive silence, and ultimately abusive supervision at a later time point. We also account for the effects of subordinates’ assertiveness and individual perceptions of a climate of fear on these predicted mediated relationships. We test this moderated mediation model with data from three studies involving different sources collected across various measurement periods. Results corroborated our predictions by showing (a) a significant association between abusive supervision and subordinates’ fear, (b) second-stage moderation effects of subordinates’ assertiveness and their individual perceptions of a climate of fear …

Interconnections Between Perceptions Of Blame, Mind, And Moral Abilities, Alex Ropes, Steve Guglielmo

Psychology Honors Projects

Theories of blame, mind, and moral attribution consider an individual’s perceived agency, operationalized in part as perceived intentionality and self-control. People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may display social deficits and a greater tendency to engage in problem behavior (PB; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) than neurotypical (NT) people, which may lead people to perceive that individuals with ASD act less agentically. Study 1 shows that the mitigated perceived agency of people with ASD leads to mitigated blame attribution. In addition to perceived agency, theories of mind and moral attribution account for perceptions of an individual’s capacity to experience emotions, pleasure, …

Family Communication Motivating Athletics Over Generations: A Mixed Method Expansion Of Self-Determination Theory, Elizabeth Hanson Smith

Dissertations

Mixed methods were utilized to test the communication within a model of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985) in a multi-generational sports framework in order to argue for an update to self-determination theory (SDT) that includes a communication element. Fourteen qualitative research questions were posed to examine how communication functioned to move tennis players, golfers, and runners from the initial family influence in participating, to integrating family values to the extent that participants modeled athletic values to offspring and community members. Three hypotheses correlating the variables of self-efficacy, autonomy-controlling and autonomy-supportive family communication supported the argument that communication functioned to develop …

Reinstatement Of Second-Order Fear, Matthew Nelson

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine if, after conditioning and extinction of a second-order stimulus, reinstatement of extinguished fear could be produced. The findings of Holmes et al. (2014) do not support reinstatement of second-order fear following post-extinction presentation of the unconditioned stimulus (US). The present study provides a second attempt at uncovering reinstatement following extinction of second-order conditioning. Rat subjects were randomly assigned to 5 groups (n=12), which received first- and second-order conditioning with Light and Tone counterbalanced. Responding to the second-order stimulus (S2) was extinguished through S2-alone presentations for all but the control subjects (Group NE-NR). …

Problem Analysis In Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma As A Driver Of Youth And Gang Violence, Laurie Ross Phd, Samantha Arsenault, Sergeant Miguel Lopez

Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers …

The Peacock Effect: The Influence Of The Opposite Sex On Aggressive Behavior, Kira J. Mason

Celebration

Most widely-accepted models for aggression do not explicitly address an important variable that roots in evolutionary psychology: the presence of a potential mate. The current research investigates whether the presence of an attractive or unattractive member of the opposite sex influences hypothetical aggression. Participants (N = 1035) imagined themselves in front of an attractive or non-attractive member of the opposite sex (accompanied by pictures of corresponding attractiveness levels), and indicate their aggressive intentions after a provocation, or not. Results from the 2(sex) x 2(attractiveness) ANOVA showed that males viewing an image of an attractive female aggressed more when provoked than …

Relational-Interdependence And Life Transitions In College: Study Abroad, First-Year, And International Students, Shelby R. Weisen

All College Thesis Program, 2016-2019

The current study examined the sojourner adjustment of U.S. college students studying abroad, international college students studying in the States, and first-year students adjusting to life in the first semester of their undergraduate careers. An online survey was distributed to 412 college students; it included the Sojourner Adjustment Measure (SAM), the Lifelong Learning Scale (WielkLLS), the Relational-Interdependent Self-Construal Scale (RISC), the Brief HEXACO Inventory of Personality, and the Social Media Use Integration Scale (SMUIS). The purpose of the study was to explore the relationships among major emerging adulthood transitions and various measures of adjustment to college. Results suggest that students …