Principles and Practice of Behavioral Assessment PDF
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Principles and Practice of Behavioral Assessment http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield APPLIED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY Series Editors: Alan S. Bellack University of Maryland at Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland Michel Hersen Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon Current volumes in this Series CONJOINTBEHAVIORALCONSULTATION A Procedural Manual Susan M. Sheridan, Thomas R. Kratochwill, and John R. Bergan CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN BEHAVIOR THERAPY Improving the Human Condition Edited by Joseph R. Cautela and Waris Ishaq FUNDAMENTALS OF BEHAVIOR ANALYTIC RESEARCH Alan Poling, Laura L. Methot, and Mark G. LeSage HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH METHODS IN HUMAN OPERANT BEHAVIOR Edited by Kennon A. Lattal and Michael Perone INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY Henry D. Schlinger, Jr., and Alan Poling KEY CONCEPTS IN PSYCHOTHERAPY INTEGRATION Jerold R. Gold PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT Stephen N. Haynes and William H. O’Brien PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT IN MEDICAL SETTINGS Ronald H. Rozensky, Jerry J. Sweet, and Steven M. Tovian THE SCIENTIFIC PRACTICE OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY Steven J. Trierweiler and George Stricker SOURCEBOOK OF TREATMENT PROGRAMS FOR SEXUAL OFFENDERS Edited by William Lamont Marshall, Yolanda M. Fernanadez, Stephen M. Hudson, and Tony Ward TREATING ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS, Second Edition Edited by William R. Miller and Nick Heather A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher. Principles and Practice of Behavioral Assessment Stephen N. Haynes University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii and William Hayes O’Brien Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, Ohio KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK,BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBookISBN: 0-306-47469-7 Print ISBN: 0-306-46221-4 ©2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers NewYork, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©2000 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers New York All rights reserved No part of this eBook maybe reproducedor transmitted inanyform or byanymeans,electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: http://kluweronline.com and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://ebooks.kluweronline.com To Dorothy, Tamara, Annamarie, Aaron, Liam, and the Lipari-Jordans, who provide joy and perspective. This page intentionally left blank Preface Introduction and Goals of Book This book presents the concepts and strategies of the behavioral assessment paradigm. Psychological assessment paradigms affect the methods of assessment, the settings in which assessment occurs, the persons from whom assessment data are acquired, how often assess- ment occurs, and the way assessment information is summarized and integrated. Ultimately, the assessment paradigm affects clinical judgments about clients—judgments about which of a client’s multiple problems and treatment goals should be addressed and assumptions about the most likely causes of the client’s problems. The assessment paradigm also affects decisions about which treatments would be best for a client and estimates of the effects of treatment. Behavioral assessment is a psychological assessment paradigm that emphasizes empiri- cally supported, multimethod and multi-informant assessment of specific, observable behav- iors and contemporaneous causal variables in the natural environment. The behavioral assess- ment paradigm stresses the use of well-validated assessment instruments and assumptions that social/environmental, cognitive, and physiological variables are often important sources of behavior variance. The behavioral assessment paradigm has had a major influence on the field of psychologi- cal assessment. It has affected the way research on the causes of behavior disorders is con- ducted, the way treatment process and outcome are evaluated, and the way treatment decisions are made. The goal of this book is to present the characteristics and underlying assumptions of the behavioral assessment paradigm and to show how they affect the practice of behavioral assessment. Although all of the concepts and strategies discussed in this book are applicable in research, this book focuses on the use of behavioral assessment to guide clinical judgments. Principles and Practices of Behavioral Assessment We emphasize several principles and practices of psychological assessment in this book: 1. The psychological assessment paradigm within which the assessor operates affects the focus and strategies of assessment and the clinical judgments made about the client. vii viii PREFACE 2. Behavioral assessment is composed of a diverse set of assumptions about behavior and its causes, the best strategies for understanding persons with behavior problems, and the best ways to plan and evaluate interventions. 3. Measurement is a central component of a scientific approach to psychological assessment, and the psychometric qualities of obtained measures affect the validity of clinical judgments. 4. The supraordinate characteristics of the behavioral assessment paradigm are the emphases on empiricism and a scholarly approach to psychological assessment. 5. Behavioral assessment is a functional approach to psychological assessment: The applicability and utility of the principles and strategies of behavioral assessment depend on the characteristics of the assessment occasion, particularly on the goals of assessment for that occasion. 6. The validity of clinical judgments can be increased by using multiple validated assessment instruments with multiple informants, applied often. 7. There are many immediate and intermediate goals in clinical assessment, but a supraordinate goal is the development of a behavioral case formulation to guide the focus and methods of intervention. 8. Psychological assessment should have a scholarly, empirical basis. Assessment instruments should be validated for the particular purpose of assessment and the assessor should be knowledgeable of relevant research literature. 9. Time-series assessment strategies can be sensitive to the dynamic time-course of variables. 10. Assessment strategies shouldinclude behavioral observation and controlled experi- mentation. 11. Idiographic assessment strategies are congruent with a functional approach to psy- chological assessment and are amenable to psychometric evaluation. 12. The most useful level of specificity of variables depends on the goals of an assessment occasion but psychological assessment instruments often provide data that are not sufficiently specific for most behavioral assessment goals. 13. Specific variables promote the use of observational methods, the use of time-series measurement strategies, the measurement of functional relations, and valid clinical judgments. 14. Clients often have multiple, functionally related behavior problems. 15. Behavior problems can vary across situations and time and can have multiple modes, facets, and dimensions. 16. The behavioral assessment paradigm is congruent with a constructional approach to assessment and treatment. 17. Assumptions about causation affect decisions about the best methods of assessment, the variables and functional relations singled out for assessment, the data obtained in the psychological assessment process, and the resultant clinical case formulation. 18. Assessment of causal relations should involve measurement of causal relations in different settings, the use of multiple sources of information, time-series measure- ment, observation in natural and analog environments, and highly specific measures. 19. A behavior problem can be influenced by multiple causal variables and through multiple causal paths. 20. Environmental variables and reciprocal behavior-environment interactions are par- ticularly important determinants of behaviorproblems, and learningprinciples can guide the focus of assessment. PREFACE ix 21. In psychological assessment, we are interested in the phase-space functions of behavior problems and causal variables. 22. An empirically informed, broadly focusedpreinterventionassessment is necessary to identify important causal variables and functional relations. 23. Validity coefficients for psychological assessment measures are conditional and help estimate the confidence that can be placed in inferences from those measures. Validity can vary across populations, settings, foci, and goals and is not a generalizable attribute of an assessment instrument. 24. Content validity is an important psychometric evaluative dimensions in behavioral assessment. 25. The functional analysis emphasizes idiographic functional relations relevant to the client’s behavior problems. Organization of Book This book is divided into three sections. Section I introduces the basic concepts, status, applications, and goals of behavioral assessment. Chapter 1 presents an overview of behavioral assessment. We emphasize a scientific-approach psychological assessment and the role of measurement in clinical judgments, particularly the clinical case formulation. The majority of the chapter previews the underlying assumptions and methods of behavioral assessment that will be treated in greater detail in subsequent chapters. Finally, Chapter 1 briefly discusses the development and historical foundations of behavioral assessment. In Chapter 2, we discuss the status, applicability, and utility of behavioral assessment. We examine the use of behavioral assessment methods in published treatment outcome studies, circulation of behavioral and nonbehavioral journals, membership in professional organiza- tions, the status of behavioral assessment in graduate training programs, and the use of behav- ioral assessment methods in clinical practice. In the second section of the chapter we discuss the applicability and utility of behavioral assessment. In Chapter 3 we define a functional approach to psychological assessment. We also discuss errors in clinical judgments and strategies for reducing them. In Chapter 4 we examine the goals of behavioral assessment and discuss the implications of specific goals for the prin- ciples and methods of assessment. Section II discusses the concepts and assumptions underlying behavioral assessment. In Chapter 5 we emphasize a scholarly, empirically based, hypothesis-testing approach to psy- chological assessment and the use of time-series measurement strategies. The first sections of Chapter 6 address the rationale underlying nomothetic and idiographic assessment. Later sections of the chapter examine methods of idiographic assessment including Goal Attainment Scaling, advantages and disadvantages of idiographic assessment, and psychometric consid- erations. Chapter 7 examines the rationale, clinical utility,assets and liabilities, and sources of errors of variables with different degrees of specificity. Chapter 8 examines assumptions about the nature of behavior problems within a behav- ioral assessment paradigm. We emphasize several assumptions about behavior problems and the relations between these assumptions and behavioral assessment strategies, particularly the fact that clients often have multiple behavior problems that vary across time and settings. Chapters 9 and 10 present concepts of causation in behavioral assessment. Chapter 9 introduces concepts of causation: definitions of causal and functional relations, necessary conditions for inferring a causal relation between variables, and limitations of causal inference.
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