University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA.
J Appl Behav Anal. 2009 Summer;42(2):469-83. doi: 10.1901/jaba.2009.42-469.
Comparisons of results from descriptive and functional analyses of problem behavior generally have shown poor correspondence. Most descriptive analyses have focused on relations between consequent events and behavior, and it has been noted that attention is a common consequence for problem behavior even though it may not be a functional reinforcer. Because attention may be prescribed simply as a means of stopping serious problem behavior, it is possible that naturally occurring antecedent events (establishing operations) might be better predictors of problem behavior than consequences. We conducted descriptive and functional analyses of the problem behaviors of 7 participants. Conditional probabilities based on combined antecedent and consequent events showed correspondence with the functional analysis data for 4 of the 7 participants, but antecedent events were no better than consequent events in identifying the function of problem behavior.
描述性分析和行为功能分析的结果比较通常显示出较差的一致性。大多数描述性分析都集中在后果事件和行为之间的关系上，并且已经注意到，即使注意力可能不是功能增强物，但它通常是问题行为的后果。由于注意力可能只是作为停止严重问题行为的一种手段，因此自然发生的先行事件（建立操作）可能比后果更好地预测问题行为。我们对 7 名参与者的问题行为进行了描述性和功能分析。基于综合先行事件和后果事件的条件概率与 7 名参与者中的 4 名参与者的功能分析数据相符，但先行事件在识别问题行为的功能方面并不优于后果事件。
