Behavioral assessment focuses on interactions between behavior and environmental situations to effect change. It emphasizes direct observation of problematic behaviors, antecedents, and consequences to understand context and causes. The SORC model conceptualizes problems in terms of Stimulus, Organism, Response, and Consequence. Behavioral assessment methods include interviews, observations in natural and controlled settings using tools like checklists, self-monitoring, and role-playing. Reliability and validity depend on factors like behavior complexity, observer training, content and construct validity, and reactivity.

1. Clinical Psychology: Chapter 9
Behavioral
Assessment
Prepared by: Keziah Keila C. Vallente

2. What is Behavioral Assessment?
• An assessment approach that focuses on the interactions between situations
and behaviors for the purpose of effecting behavioral change.
How does it differ from Traditional Assessment?
1. Behavioral Assessment emphasizes direct assessments (naturalistic
observations) of problematic behavior, antecedent
(situational)conditions, and consequences (reinforcement).
2. It has a central feature namely the functional analysis, in where careful
analyses are made of the stimuli preceding a behavior and the
consequences following from it to gain a precise understanding of the
context and causes of behavior.
3. It is an ongoing process, occurring at all points throughout the treatment.

3. SORC Model (Kanfer & Phillips, 1970)
-a useful model for conceptualizing a clinical problem
from a behavioral perspective.
• S=stimulus or antecedent conditions that bring on the
problematic behavior
• O=organismic variable related to the problematic behavior
• R=response or problematic behavior
• C=Consequences of the problematic behavior

4. Behavioral Assessment Methods
Behavioral Interviews
• Interviews conducted for the purpose of identifying a problem behavior, the
situational factors that maintain the behavior, and the consequences that result
from that behavior.
• Behavioral Interviews are used to obtain a general picture of the presenting
problem and of the variables that seem to be maintaining the problematic
behavior.
Observation Methods
• A primary technique of behavioral assessment. It is often used to gain a better
understanding of the frequency, strength, and pervasiveness of the problem
behavior as well as the factors that are maintaining it.
• It provide the clinician with an actual sample (rather than a self - report) of the
problematic behavior.

5. Observation Methods
Naturalistic Conditions
• Behavior typically and spontaneously occurs.
Controlled Conditions
• Simulated or contrived conditions. The environment is designed to such that it is
likely that the assessor will observe the targeted behavior or interactions.
Home Observation
School Observation
Hospital Observation
• Achenbach’s (1994) Direct Observation Form (DOF) of the Child Behavior Checklist. It is
used to assess problem behaviors that may be observed in school classrooms or other
settings.
• Behavioral Coding System (BCS) developed by Patterson (1977) and his colleagues R.R.
Jone, Reid, & Patterson (1975). This observational system was designed for use in the
homes of pre – delinquent boys who exhibit problems in the areas of aggressiveness and
non – compliance.
• Time Sample Behavioral Checklist (TSBC) developed by Gordon Paul and his associates
(Mariotto & Paul, 1974). It is a time – sample behavioral checklist that can be used with
chronic psychiatric patients. Time – sample means that observations are made at regular
intervals for a given patient.

6. Controlled Performance Technique
• An assessment procedure in which the clinician places individuals in
carefully controlled performance situations and collects data on their
performance/behaviors, their emotional reactions, and/or various
psycho physiological indices.
Self - Monitoring
• An observational technique in which individuals observe and
record their own behaviors, thoughts, or emotions (including
information on timing, frequency, intensity and duration),
• Clients are asked to maintain behavioral logs or diaries over some
predetermined time period.

7. Role – Playing Methods
• A technique in which patients are
directed to respond the way they
would typically respond if they
were in a given situation. The
situation may be described to
them, or an assistant may actually
act the part of another person.
Cognitive – Behavioral Assessments
• An assessment approach
recognizing that the person’s
thought or cognitions play an
important role in behavior.

8. Variables Affecting Reliability of Observations
Complexity of Target Behavior
• The more complex the behavior to
be observed, the greater the
opportunity for unreliability.
• Behavioral assessment typically
focuses on less complex, lower level
behaviors (Haynes, 1998).
• Observations about what a person
eats (lower level behavior) are likely
to be more reliable than those
centering on interpersonal behavior
(higher level, more complex
behavior.)
Training Observers
• Observer Drift: a phenomenon in
which observers who work closely
together subtly, and without
awareness, begin to drift away from
other observers in their ratings.
• Observers who are sent into
psychiatric hospitals to study patient
behaviors and then make diagnostic
ratings must be carefully prepared in
advance.
• To guard against observer
drift, regularly scheduled reliability
checks should be conducted and
feedback provided to raters.

9. Variables Affecting Validity of Observations
Content Validity
• A behavioral observation schema
should include the behaviors that
are deemed important for the
research or clinical purposes at
hand.
Concurrent Validity
• Another way to approach the
validity of observations is to ask
whether one’s obtained
observational ratings corresponds
to what others are observing in the
same time frame.
Construct Validity
• Observation systems are usually
derived from some explicit or
implicit theoretical framework.
Mechanics of Rating
• It is important that a unit of analysis
be specified. A unit of analysis is the
length of time observations will be
made, along with the type and
number of responses to be
considered.

10. Variables Affecting Validity of Observations
• Observer Error
• No one is perfect. Observers must be
monitored form time to time to ensure
the accuracy of their reports.
• Sometimes, they simply miss things or
else believe they have observed things
that never really happened
• Reactivity
• Patients or study participants sometimes
react to the fact that they are being
observe by changing the way they
behave.
• It can severely hamper the validity of
observations because it makes the
observed behavior unrepresentative of
what normally occurs.
Ecological Validity
• In the context of behavioral
assessment, the extent to which the
behaviors analyzed or observed
are representative of a person’s
typical behavior.