Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:39:08.055Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Minimal Intervention: A Strategy for Generalized Behaviour Change with Mentally Handicapped Individuals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2009

Alastair Ager
Alastair Ager
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leicester
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Correctly construed, the concept of intervention requires that active consideration be given to the mechanisms by which any behaviour change produced by an intervention procedure may subsequently be generalized—across settings, across behaviours and, particularly, across time. Broad strategies that have been adopted with the aim of fostering generalization are reviewed. These may be seen to define a continuum along which scope for engineering behaviour change is “traded” with the probability of the contingencies required to maintain this change being assimilated within the “post-intervention” environment. Viewing strategies in this manner prompts consideration of interventions representing the extreme of this continuum, where scope for engineering change is minimal, but the probability of maintaining any change produced is very high. The implications of adopting such “minimal interventions” are examined, and these strategies shown to have some empirical support. A broad structure for implementing “minimal interventions” is proposed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 16 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ager, A. K. (1983). An analysis of learning and attentional processes in mentally handicapped individuals. Unpublished doctoral thesis: University of Wales.Google Scholar
Baer, D. M. and Wolf, M. M. (1967). The entry into natural communities of reinforcement. In Control of Human Behaviour, Volume two: From Care to Prevention, Ulrich, R., Stachnik, T. and Mabry, J. (Eds). Glenview, Ill: Scott Foresman.Google Scholar
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M. and Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavioral analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 1, 91–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coles, E. and Blunden, R. (1981). Maintaining new procedures using feedback to staff, a hierarchical reporting system and a multidisciplinary management group. Journal of organisational Behavior Management 3, 19–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conduit, E. (1982). How much care? Measuring dependency with the BDC. Mental Handicap. 10, 128–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craighead, W. E., Kazdin, A. E. and Mahoney, M. J. (1981). Behaviour Modification: Principles, Issues and Applications (2nd Edition). Houghton Mifflin: Boston.Google Scholar
Cullen, C. (1976). Errorless learning with the retarded. Nursing Times 72, 45–47. (Reprinted in Journal of Practical Approaches to Developmental Handicap, 1979, 2, (3), 21–24.)Google ScholarPubMed
Cullen, C. (1983). Implications of functional analysis. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 22, 137–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health and Social Security (1981). Care in the Community—A Consultative Document on Moving Resources for Care in England. DHSS: London.Google Scholar
Dickens, P. (1980). A radical behaviourist looks at mental handicap. APEX: Journal of the British Institute of Mental Handicap 8, 60.Google Scholar
Dy, E. B., Strain, P. S., Fullerton, A. and Stowitschek, J. (1981). Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities 1, 199–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forehand, R. and Atkeson, T. M. (1978). Generalisation of treatment effects with parents as therapists: A review of assessment and implementation procedures. Behaviour Therapy 3, 575–598.Google Scholar
Fowler, H. W. and Fowler, F. G. (1964). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 5th Ed.Clarendon: Oxford.Google Scholar
Gardner, J. M., Murphy, J. W. and Crawford, N. B. (1983). The Skills Analysis Model—An Effective Curriculum for Children with Severe Learning Difficulties. BIMH: Kidderminster.Google Scholar
Guess, D., Keogh, W. and Sailor, W. (1978). Generalisation of speech and language behaviour: Measurement and training tactics. In. Bases of Language Intervention, Schiefelbusch, R. L. (Ed.). University Park Press: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Jones, L. and Cullen, C. (1980). Errorless learning with the retarded: Some further considerations. Journal of Practical Approaches to Developmental Handicap 4, 18–22.Google Scholar
Kiernan, C. C. (1978). Behaviour modification. In Readings from Mental Deficiency: The Changing Outlook, Clarke, A. M. and Clarke, A. D. M. (Eds). London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Keeley, S. M., Shernberg, K. M. and Carbonell, J. (1976). Operant clinical intervention: behaviour management or beyond? Where are the data? Behavior Therapy 7, 292–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litt, M. D. and Schreibman, L. (1981). Stimulus specific reinforcement in the acquisition of receptive labels by autistic children. Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities 1, 171–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackintosh, N. J. and Little, L. (1970). Effects of different patterns of reinforcement on performance under massed and spaced extinction. Psychonomic Science 20, 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, M. J. (1974). Cognition and Behaviour Modification. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Miller, S. J. and sloane, H. N. (1976). The generalisation effects of parent training across stimulus settings. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 9, 355–370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mittler, P. (1977). Research to Practice in Mental Retardation: Volume 1—Care and Intervention. IASSMD: New York.Google Scholar
Parad, H. J. (1965). Crisis Intervention. New York: Family Service Association.Google Scholar
Perkins, E. A., Taylor, P. D. and Capie, A. C. M. (1981). Helping the Retarded—A Systematic Behavioural Approach, 2nd Edn.BIMH: Kidderminster.Google Scholar
Phillips, B. L. (1968). Achievement place token reinforcement procedures in a home-style rehabilitation setting for “pre-delinquent” boys. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 1, 213–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pithouse, M. (1980). The CUSS Group Home: A review of principles and practices in the care and training of mentally handicapped people. In Residential Care: A Reader in Current Theory and Practice, Walton, R. G. and Elliott, D. (Eds). Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Porterfield, J. (1983). Personal Communication.Google Scholar
Ray, B. A. and Sidman, M. (1970). Reinforcement schedules and stimulus control. In The Theory of Reinforcement Schedules, Schoenfield, W. N. (Ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Redd, W. H. and Birnbrauer, J. S. (1969). Adults as discriminative stimuli for different reinforcment contingencies with retarded children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 4, 440–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revill, S. and Blunden, R. (1980). A Manual for Implementing a Package Home Training Service for Developmentally Handicapped Pre-School Children. Windsor: NFER.Google Scholar
Richmond, G. and Bell, J. (1983). Comparison of three methods to train a size discrimination with profoundly mentally retarded students. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 87, 574–576.Google Scholar
Rincover, A. (1978). Variables affecting stimulus fading and discriminative responding in psychotic children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 87, 541–553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rincover, A. (1981). Some directions for analysis and intervention in development disabilities: an editorial. Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities 1, 109–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rincover, A. and Koegel, R. L. (1975). Setting generality and stimulus control in autistic children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 8, 235–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sander, M. R. and James, J. E. (1983). The modifications of parent behaviour: a review of generalisation and maintenance. Behavior Modification 7, 3–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schiefelbusch, R. L. (1978). Bases of Language Intervention, University Park Press: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Schilmoeller, K. J. and Etzel, B. C. (1977). An experimental analysis of criterion-related and non-criterion-related cues in “errorless” stimulus control procedures. In New Developments in Behavioral Research: Theory, Method and Application, Etzel, B. C., LeBlanc, J. M. and Baer, D. M. (Eds). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Schreibman, L. (1975). Effects of within-stimulus and extra-stimulus prompting on discrimination learning in autistic children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 8, 91–112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sidman, M. (1978). Remarks. Behaviorism 6, 265–268.Google Scholar
Sidman, M. (1979). Remarks. Behaviorism 7, 123–126.Google Scholar
Sidman, M. and Stoddard, L. T. (1966). Programming perception and learning for retarded children. In International Review of Research in Mental Retardation, Ellis, N. R. (Ed.). Vol. 2, New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1969). Contingencies of Reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century Crofts.Google Scholar
Stokes, T. and Baer, D. M. (1977). An undeveloped problem in behavior analysis with special importance for mental retardation. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 10, 349–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tennant, L., Cullen, C. and Hattersley, J. (1981). Applied behavioural analysis: intervention with retarded people. In. Applications of Conditioning Theory, Davey, G. C. L. (Ed.). London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Ullman, L. P. and Krasner, L. (1965). Case Studies in Behavior Modification. New York: Holt, Runehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Wahler, R. G., Berland, R. M. and Coe, T. D. (1979). Generalisation processes in child behaviour change. In Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, Lakey, B. B. and Kazdin, A. E. (Eds). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Wahler, R. G., Leske, G. and Rogers, E. S. (1977). The insular family: a deviance support system for oppositional children.Banff International Conference on Behaviour Modification.Google Scholar
Willems, E. P. (1974). Behavioral technology and behavioral ecology. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 3, 131–160.Google Scholar
Williams, C. (1981). Personal Communication.Google Scholar
Wiliams, C. and Jackson, M. W. (1975). Nurse training in behaviour modification. In Behaviour Modification with the Severely Retarded, Kiernan, C. C. and Woodford, F. P. (Eds). Elsevier: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Yule, W. and Carr, J. (1980). Behaviour Modification for the Mentally Handicapped. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.