A systematic analysis of the influence of prior social context on aggression and self-injury within analogue analysis assessments

Experimental analogue analyses are sometimes used to identify the operant f unction of aberrant behavior for individuals with developmental disabilitie s. These methods are proposed to be superior to other assessment techniques because they systematically control for the presence and absence of hypoth esized maintaining contingencies within the analogue analysis. Analogue ana lyses are usually performed over a brief period of time with little referen ce to the broader social context within which they are conducted. social in teractions that a person experiences prior to an analogue analysis assessme nt might influence performance within the assessment. The authors examined the influence of prior social conditions on levels of aberrant behavior und er analogue assessments with two individuals with severe developmental disa bilities. Results indicated that prior social conditions significantly infl uenced analogue analysis results in idiosyncratic ways for both. These find ings are discussed in terms of the need to examine broad contextual influen ces when conducting functional analyses of aberrant behavior.