Behavioral Assessment

Description of the Strategy

Behavioral assessment is a flexible system of measurement and judgment that emphasizes principles and concepts of assessment more than the use of specific methods. Behavioral assessment emphasizes the measurement of external environmental factors, such as the social setting in which a client's problem behaviors occur and how others respond to those behaviors; cognitive processes, such as a client's thoughts and beliefs; and overt behavior, such as how a person acts in a particular environment. Behavioral assessment is closely tied to well-established models of learning (such as operant conditioning, classical conditioning, and social learning), and it is strongly influenced by research. For example, the emphasis on the social contexts of problem behavior is derived from many studies that have shown ...