Situation specificity in attention-seeking problem behavior. A case study.
Attention functions can lock onto tiny social cues—test who the adult is talking to during your FA.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a functional analysis on one student. They wanted to know if the kid’s problem behavior was really about getting attention.
They tested different times when adults talked. Sometimes the adult spoke to the student. Other times the adult spoke to another adult. They watched when the behavior happened most.
What they found
Problem behavior only showed up when the adult talked to another adult. When the adult talked to the student, the behavior stopped.
The behavior was not about getting any attention. It was about getting the adult to stop talking to someone else.
How this fits with other research
Repp et al. (1992) looked at a group of kids the year before. Some kids wanted more attention. Others wanted less. The new case shows a third kind: the child wants the adult’s attention aimed only at them.
DeLeon et al. (2003) later showed that what you say during attention matters. Their study changed the words used. The 1993 study changed who received the words. Both prove attention is not one simple thing.
Lawer et al. (2009) reviewed many autistic outpatients. Most problem behavior was social. The 1993 case gives a close-up view of one social detail adults often miss.
Why it matters
Next time you run a functional analysis, add a condition where the adult talks to someone else. If behavior jumps, you have found a situation-specific function. Teach the student a quick way to ask for attention, like a hand raise or card tap. Use that replacement only when the adult is busy with another person. This small tweak can wipe out the problem without big drugs or restraints.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous research on attention-seeking problem behavior has focused on individuals who misbehaved under general conditions of low adult attention. In general, no detailed analyses were conducted to determine whether different situations involving low levels of adult attention (such as familiar vs. unfamiliar adults, setting events, or the presence or absence of peers) exacerbated or attenuated problem behavior. The current case study demonstrates that, for one adolescent, all situations involving low levels of adult attention were not equally discriminative for problem behavior. Two functional analyses concerning different situations involving low levels of adult attention were conducted. The first analysis consisted of systematically manipulating antecedent and consequence conditions related to adult attention and task demands. This analysis indicated that low levels of adult attention evoked problem behavior. The second analysis involved two different conditions presenting low levels of adult attention. In one, the adult spoke to another child; in the second, the adult spoke to another adult. This second analysis revealed that, when the adult spoke to another adult, problem behavior resulted. However, when the adult spoke to another child, problem behavior did not occur. On the basis of these functional analyses, a positive intervention was designed to reduce problem behavior. Theoretical implications related to functional analysis are discussed, and applied issues concerning functionally based treatment selection are explored.
Behavior modification, 1993 · doi:10.1177/01454455930174004