ON THE ESTABLISHING AND REINFORCING EFFECTS OF TERMINATION OF DEMANDSFOR DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR MAINTAINED BY POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT

The results of functional analyses suggested that the destructive beha vior of two individuals was sensitive to escape and attention as reinf orcement. In an instructional context, we evaluated the effects of rei nforcing compliance,with functional reinforcers when destructive behav ior produced a break For one participant we also evaluated the effects of enforcing compliance with functional reinforcers when destructive behavior produced no differential consequence (escape extinction). We hypothesized that destructive behavior failed to decrease in an instru ctional context when compliance resulted it a break because presentati on of a break evoked attention-maintained destructive behavior. The re sults of a reinforcer assessment supported this hypothesis by demonstr ating that demands functioned as positive reinforcement when no altern ative activities were available. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of establishing operations in determining the appeti tive or aversive properties of stimuli when destructive behavior is mu ltiply controlled.