Why do we do what we do?

"The function of a behavior refers to the source of environmental reinforcement for it."

Tarbox et al (2009, p. 494)

Everyday and in the very beginning of life, as an infant, we have learned to do things because of the consequences that were put in place. These consequences were put in place based on the environment that we were in. For example: A baby has learned to cry when hungry so he/she will be fed, cleaned or picked up.

Therefore, in applied behavior analysis, behavior is maintained by several functions. In other words, behavior happens for certain reasons and understanding the reason why certain behaviors occur, will help us understand why a person does what he/she does. Behavior could be maintained by the following functions: attention, escape/avoidance,  tangible/activities or automatically maintained. Sometimes, behavior can serve multiple functions. For example, a child might learn to hurt themselves during class to get out of having to complete academic tasks and then also hurt themselves in the playground to get attention from the teachers.


Attention

You tell a joke and your friends laugh. You love your friends laughing at your joke because you absolutely love the attention, so you tell another joke. This joke telling behavior, is maintained by attention. You are more likely to tell a joke in their presence again because you love the attention.

Another example, your child kicks his sibling and his mother gives him attention for this. The child continues to kick his sibling because every time he kicks his sibling, his mother takes away attention from the sibling and giver her attention to the child kicking. His kicking behavior then is maintained by his mother's attention.

It may seem weird that a person would engage in a behavior to deliberately have someone scold them. However, it can occur because for some people it’s better to obtain “bad” attention than no attention at all (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007). 

Escape/Avoidance

Not all behaviors occur so the person can “get access” to something. Some behaviors occur because the person wants to get away from something or avoid something (Miltenberger, 2008).

For example, You see a cop on the road while you are speeding, you slow down. The reason why you slow down is because you want to avoid a speeding ticket.

Another great example is that you keep putting off your dentist appointment even though your teeth needs attention because going to the dentist is aversive and you want to avoid going as much as possible. 

Tangible/Activities

Your child cries or screams whenever they want a specific toy (tangible) in the store until you buy it for your child or your child kicks and cries every time he wants to go to the pool (activities) because every time he does this, you take him to the pool.

Automatic

Some behaviors, have no particular environment function. Some behaviors we only do because it feels good when we do it.  It is pleasing to us internally or in other words, they are “self-stimulating” (O’Neill, Horner, Albin, Sprague, Storey, & Newton, 1997) For example, rocking back and forth and twirling our hair while we read a book.


Behaviors always occur for a reason and it is very important to understand the reasons as to why these behaviors occur. Understanding the reasons, will help us determine how to improve a behavior or decrease an undesired behavior.

If you wish to learn more, please sign up for the following workshop on functions of behavior.

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We are what we learn to do..

I was browsing on the internet and I found this picture about "tantrums" and "autism meltdown." This picture describes two separate behaviors that parents often observe among their children diagnosed with autism. These behaviors are also often observed in children of typical development.

This picture paints an inaccurate image of how behavior should be observed and does not provide an accurate reflection of how most behaviors function. Behaviors be it a tantrum behavior or an "autism meltdown" is a function of the environment. Because each child with autism is affected differently by autism, each behavior is unique. We as human beings also respond differently to the same set of environmental conditions.

Therefore, to say that a tantrum is "Want directed" for example is a generalization. It can be "want directed", but we don't know this until a formal functional assessment is done. Some children with autism, tantrum due to routine changes, unexpected events, sickness, etc. We will never know why a behavior happens until a formal assessment is done. Therefore tantrum behavior and the antecedent for that behavior will depend on the child and the child's current environment.

In addition, I don't quite comprehend what is an "autism meltdown". All behaviors in our environment especially when dealing with a child with autism, should be objective and well defined. In other words, how do we know if a child is "overstressed or overwhelmed?" How do we measure this subjective behavior? But, we as behavior analysts can measure screaming, crying, shouting, etc and based on those observable behaviors that can me measured, will determine why the child is doing what he/she is doing.

"As each of us experience varying contingencies of reinforcement, some behaviors are strengthened and some are weakened.....We are what we do and we do what we have learned to do." ( Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007)

We do what we have learned to do. Children with autism have learned to do what they do through contingencies set by their environment. Behaviors have four functions:

1) Attention maintained
2) Escape maintained
3) Automatically maintained
4) Play maintained

A functional behavior analysis should be done to determine the function of a behavior. In other words, if you child is engaging in "tantrum behavior" or an "autism meltdown," a good behavior analyst should determine the function of these behaviors through (a) a functional analysis, (b) descriptive assessments and (c) indirect assessments. Please ask your provider about these assessments when looking at behaviors of concern such as the above. The less assumptions we make about behavior the more effective teachers we will be to our children.

For more information on these assessments, please feel free to email littlestepsmalaysia@gmail.com