Description of the Strategy

Central to behavioral theory is the concept that all behavior, functional or dysfunctional, is the result of learning history. More specifically, behavior that is followed by a reinforcement is more likely to reoccur, whereas behavior that either fails to be reinforced or is followed by a punishment is less likely to reoccur. Furthermore, an individual learns that reinforcement is more likely to occur for certain behaviors in certain circumstances than in others. Circumstances that signal a probable reinforcing consequence are termed discriminative stimuli (SD). For example, most adults have learned that picking up a ringing phone (SD) and saying “Hello” (target behavior) will be met with a response of “Hi, this is so and so… .” (reinforcement), [Page 251]whereas ...