Capella PSY7708 2020 JULY All Weeks Discussions Latest

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 1 Discussion

Mentalism and Behaviorism

Your unit readings address the behavior analytic perspectives on what behaviorists refer to as the mentalistic approach to analyzing and solving human problems. New learners of ABA often have difficulty with changing their perspectives about the causes of behavior.

In your post:

Discuss the difference between the mentalist's and the radical behaviorist's perspectives regarding feelings, states of mind, and unobservable mental events. Is there a special thing called the mind?

Provide a recent example of a situation where you were exposed to, or considered, a mentalistic explanation for your own or someone else's behavior. How could you shift your thinking to a behavior analytic perspective?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Describe the scientific foundations of behaviorism.

Explain the difference between behaviorism and mentalism.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 2 Discussion

ABA’s Seven Dimensions

As you read in the Baer, Wolf, and Risley article, there are seven different dimensions that define applied behavior analysis. While these seven guiding principles were identified in 1968, they continue to form the basis of applied behavior analysis and are still relevant today.

Which dimensions of ABA make the most sense to you? Why?

Which dimensions do you find more challenging? What questions do you have?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Describe the seven dimensions of applied behavior analysis.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 3 Discussion

Respondent and Operant Behaviors

In the science of behavior analysis there are two types of conditioning. Respondent behaviors can be thought of as reflexes that are elicited by stimuli. While operant behaviors can be thought of as behaviors that are maintained by environmental consequences and evoked by environmental stimuli.

Describe a behavior you engaged in today that was an operant behavior. Also, describe a behavior that you have emitted that would be considered a respondent behavior.

Explain how the operant behavior example differs from the respondent behavior example.

Based on your understanding so far, how could we use operant conditioning in ABA therapy?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Describe examples of operant and respondent behavior.

Compare the similarities and differences between operant and respondent behavior.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 4 Discussion

Behavior Definitions

Before we can target behaviors, we have to understand how they are defined. In addition to understanding how behavior is defined in general, behavior analysts must always define targeted behaviors before data collection can begin on them.

Before beginning this course, how did you define behavior?

How does your textbook define behavior?

How does your previous understanding or definition of behavior differ from the definition in your textbook?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Distinguish between a common definition of behavior and a behavior analytic definition.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 5 Discussion

Misconceptions of Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement is commonly misunderstood because of the term negative. Most people get it mixed up with punishment or think it refers to an unwanted behavior being reinforced. In the science of behavior analysis, the term negative refers to the fact that a stimulus is being removed after a behavior. Remember, reinforcement is used to increase behavior, so with negative reinforcement, a stimulus is removed following a behavior to increase the frequency of the behavior in the future. For example, when you connect your seat belt to stop the annoying buzzing sound in your car, this is negative reinforcement (the behavior of wearing a seat belt increases to remove an aversive stimulus).

Explain the difference between the common misconception of the term negative reinforcement and how the science of behavior analysis defines it. Why do you think this misconception exists?

Provide three real-life examples of negative reinforcement that you have encountered.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Define negative reinforcement from a behavior analytic perspective.

Describe real-life examples of negative reinforcement.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 6 Discussion

Punishment Guidelines

As discussed in this unit's activities, punishment is not just those contrived consequences that are set up to decrease behavior but also something that naturally occurs. For example, when walking across a wet slippery floor one may fall and hurt oneself. The behavior of walking across a wet slippery floor is punished by the added, aversive consequence of falling and hurting oneself.

For this discussion, think of two recent examples of when your behavior has been punished. Ideally, try to describe examples of punishment contingencies occurring naturally, but contrived punishment contingencies are fine as well.

Describe the environmental variables surrounding the behavior and whether they were negative or positive punishment.

Discuss whether the behaviors you identified in your examples were necessary for your overall well-being. In other words, if these behaviors continued to occur, would that put your survival or overall well-being at risk?

Finally, discuss your previous understanding of punishment before you took this course, and explain whether it is the same or different from how punishment is defined in the science of behavior analysis.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Describe real-life examples of positive and negative punishment.

Distinguish between a common definition of punishment and a behavior analytic definition.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 7 Discussion

Schedules of Reinforcement

The ABA New Learner Orientation is an excellent way to learn about key elements of the program including meeting leadership and faculty, learning about curriculum and coursework, understanding program and University supports and having an opportunity to ask follow up questions. After watching or attending the New Learner Program Orientation, please engage in the following discussion activities, Please note your instructor will post a link to the live orientation in announcements as well as a link to the recording if you cannot attend live.

Confirm that you have attended or watched the New Larner Program Orientation.

Describe your plan for obtaining fieldwork hours including:

The site where you are or plan to obtain these hours.

How you plan to locate a supervisor (or confirm if you already have one).

The number of hours you plan to accrue each month to obtain the number required to apply for the BCBA exam.

Describe your current (or ideal) site for obtaining these hours and why you chose this location.

Please read over the BACB fieldwork hour rules referenced in the orientation. Please describe some examples of how you may accrue unrestricted fieldwork hours.

Identify and describe three key points you took away from the orientation that will help you during your educational journey at Capella University.

Describe any barriers (if any) that you foresee in your journey to becoming nationally certified. Also, explain any potential safeguards to overcome those barriers.

If relevant, please ask any follow-up questions you have and your course faculty member will address them through the discussion board.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Define schedules of reinforcement.

Describe real-world examples of schedules of reinforcement.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 8 Discussion

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers

We use reinforcement to increase appropriate behaviors. The effectiveness of reinforcement depends on an individual’s preference. While some items or activities are preferred for some individuals, they may be aversive for others. When using positive reinforcement, we must ensure that the reinforcers we are presenting actually function as reinforcers. Also, keep in mind that just because you may like or enjoy something, it does not mean you will respond to gain access. One may like doing puzzles, but one may not be willing to run five miles to gain access to a puzzle.

List five preferred items or activities that you enjoy.

Categorize these five items or activities into primary or secondary reinforcers.

Explain why each is an example of a primary reinforcer or a secondary reinforcer. What primary reinforcers are the secondary reinforcers likely paired with?

If any are secondary reinforcers, speculate how they may have come to be secondary reinforcers. What were the primary reinforcers with which they may have been paired?

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Distinguish between primary and secondary reinforcers.

Identify real-life examples of primary and secondary reinforcers.

 

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 9 Discussion

Operant Extinction

To keep behaviors in an individual’s repertoire, reinforcement must occur. When reinforcement is discontinued, the behavior stops occurring. This process is called extinction.

Think of a behavior that you may have previously exhibited that no longer occurs, for example nail-biting. This is most likely due to the process of extinction.

Describe the behavior that you no longer exhibit.

Describe how the extinction contingency played a role in the discontinuation of this behavior.

Describe extinction burst.

Explain any bursts that may have occurred in your extinction contingency example.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Explain the concept of extinction in the context of applied behavior analysis.

Describe a real-world example of how a behavior may reach extinction.

PSY7708 Basic Foundations in Applied Behavior Analysis

Week 10 Discussion

Antecedent Stimuli

As a future ABA professional, it is important that you understand how motivating operations and discriminative stimuli effect behavior. When an individual is motivated for something and it is available, behaviors are likely to occur. Motivating operations can be contrived so that reinforcement is valuable. Discrimination training can occur such that an individual understands a stimulus is available when a particular stimulus is present.

Explain the similarities and differences between motivation operations and discriminative stimuli.

Give one example of an MO and one example of an SD.

Based on what you have learned, describe how behavior analysts can contrive MOs to change behavior.

Response Guidelines

Read the posts of your peers and respond to two. Your response should be substantive and demonstrate your understanding of the material. What aspects of the post do you like or agree with and why? Are there areas that are not clear? Did the post spark questions that you would like to ask your peer? In this, and in all of your courseroom posts, be sure to keep your tone scholarly, respectful, and professional.

Learning Components

This activity will help you achieve the following learning components:

Distinguish between motivation operations and discriminative stimuli.

Describe real-world examples of motivation operations and discriminative stimuli.