1/8/22
Current Mood: Contemplative
Listening to: “Fly Away” by Tones and I
Dear Diary,
As I am sitting here trying to compose my thoughts for the day, I take a break every so often to twirl my hair. I know, I know…not the most “adult” behavior for me to engage in, but one that has been strong in my repertoire since a young age. Under certain conditions, it occurs more frequently, but when it does occur it occurs repetitively over long durations of time. While I’ve never formally assessed the behavior, I hypothesize that it is automatically maintained. While engaging in the behavior is reinforcing, I’ve heard from a few brave friends and family that it can be aversive to observe. To be honest, when I’ve received this feedback, I’ve been a bit taken aback. In the absence of this feedback, I would not have identified this as a behavior in need of change. The behavior is under some degree of contextual control – I don’t engage in the behavior during important work meetings. It hasn’t resulted in, what I consider to be, significant damage to my hair. So, is this behavior socially significant for change? Do I need an intervention?
As I twirl my hair some more and ponder these questions, I can’t help but think about how, as behavior analysts working with clients, we often target repetitive behaviors for decrease. Such behaviors can sometimes interfere with engaging in more adaptive behaviors and may also sometimes, as in my case, be aversive to others. But what about conditions under which they are not? What if I am engaging in repetitive behavior when I am sitting at home by myself? What if the behavior is not in any way dangerous or harmful to myself or my environment? Are we considering these factors and rather than promoting elimination of such behaviors, are we considering bringing these behaviors under the appropriate contextual control? If someone asks me to stop this behavior when I’m around others, can I do so? These seem to be salient questions that we should be asking.
One of the sections I actually remember quite clearly from my first read-through of Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2007), is the section that discusses how to select appropriate behaviors for clients. Cooper and colleagues (2007) listed some important considerations, as well as some guidelines to determine the relative priorities of behaviors for change. This section is still intact in the newest edition of Cooper, Heron, & Heward (2020), as well. While this may seem a rather basic concept, I think there are some great tools that can be used to ensure that we are focusing on the most socially significant behaviors for our clients. I find for myself that having these kinds of tools in place can help me to keep perspective and be thoughtful in the behaviors being selected for change.
Now maybe I’m a bit defensive of my hair twirling and, I suspect, given the history of this behavior that it would be quite resistant to change, but as critical as quantitative data are, the analysis of behavior is more than just analyzing numbers on a data sheet. Context is everything and if someone was ever analyzing my own repetitive behaviors, I would certainly hope that they do so taking this into account. I do have strategies that I use in certain conditions, like important meetings, to prevent this behavior from occurring, such as styling my hair in such a way that it can’t be twirled. While not a high-tech strategy, it’s one that works for me and I think is beneficial to have. If I didn’t have any such strategy to utilize, it would seem to be an appropriate goal to develop one.
In short, I suggest that when assessing behavior that this does not occur in a vacuum. Context matters and we must consider this in our analysis. If it’s been a while since you looked at this content, take a read through this section in Cooper for a refresher. Did it help you to consider some questions that you hadn’t before? Do you think that you will use the worksheets that they provide? Is there another tool that you would find helpful? I’d love to know other people’s thoughts on this topic!
~Colleen
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Pearson.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson.