Topic of the Week: Reinforcement & Reinforcers

This blog post is intended to help students that plan on taking their Board Certification in Behavior Analysis (“Pre-CBAs”) to understand the terms and topics of behavior analysis. Some of you are taking live classes and some are taking courses online. Either way, it would be beneficial to have an opinion other than your textbook… Continue reading Topic of the Week: Reinforcement & Reinforcers

50 Shades of Behavior Therapy

This week I came across a very interesting Ted Talk where the speaker, Dr. Daniel Amen, described the importance of brain imaging in psychiatric diagnostics. I was quite enjoying myself until he said that using behavior therapy for a patient with violent behavior “would be cruel”. I have worked with behavior therapy for people with… Continue reading 50 Shades of Behavior Therapy

Published
Categorized as 2016, April

Fear of the Unknown

Working as a behavior analyst in an acute psychiatric hospital, has posed many challenges, to say least. One afternoon, as I sat with my supervisor discussing how difficult it was to get the staff to follow the recommendations of a behavior plan, she asked me why I thought they didn’t follow my recommendations. “Fear”, I… Continue reading Fear of the Unknown

Published
Categorized as 2016, March

Why Some Behavioral Interventions Don’t Seem To Work?

There are many reasons why some behavioral programs don’t work: poor design, inadequate reinforcers, irrelevant back up reinforcers, goals are too high, etc. From all the possible reasons for the failure of a behavior program, the one I have encountered most frequently is lack of contingency. Behavior is maintained by its consequences. In order to… Continue reading Why Some Behavioral Interventions Don’t Seem To Work?

Published
Categorized as 2016, March