Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Cynthia M. Anderson.

Abstract

The analog functional analysis exerts a great deal of control over environmental variables due to the systematic manipulation of specific antecedent and consequent events. Previous research suggests that the treatment utility of the analog might be enhanced by including environmental variables specific to the participant (e.g., caregivers). An alternative to this is to conduct the functional assessment in the natural environment. The structured descriptive assessment (SDA) involves systematic manipulation of antecedent events but is conducted by caregivers in individuals' natural environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the treatment utility of the analog functional analysis and the SDA by comparing results of the analog functional analysis when conducted by experimenters versus caregivers to results obtained from the SDA. Additionally, consequence-based interventions based on the results of each assessment were evaluated. Four participants with developmental disabilities and their caregivers participated. For all four participants, different patterns of responding were observed across all three assessments. For all participants, the interventions based on the results of the SDA were more effective than interventions based on the analog functional analysis.

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