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Comparative Study
. 2007 Summer;40(2):333-8.
doi: 10.1901/jaba.2007.56-06.

A comparison of outcomes from descriptive and functional analyses of problem behavior

Rachel H Thompson  1 , Brian A Iwata
Affiliations
Comparative Study

A comparison of outcomes from descriptive and functional analyses of problem behavior

Rachel H Thompson et al. J Appl Behav Anal. 2007 Summer.

Abstract

We compared results of descriptive and functional analyses of problem behavior for 12 participants whose descriptive data have been reported previously (Thompson & Iwata, 2001). Results indicated that in only 3 of the 12 cases was problem behavior maintained by the consequence observed most frequently during the descriptive analysis. Attention was the most common consequence for problem behavior during descriptive analyses for 8 of the 12 participants; however, maintenance of problem behavior by attention was evident for only 2 of these 8 participants.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Responses per minute of problem behavior during functional analyses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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