Given that conducting and properly scoring a descriptive assessment can be extremely time consuming and descriptive assessments do not provide any information about causal environment-behavior relations, one might conclude that descriptive assessments do not have a place in clinical work. However, this is not the case. Describe a situation in which the use of a descriptive assessment would be indicated. Include enough detail to support your assertion and explain how the data would be used to inform follow-up assessments or interventions. Take care to avoid describing situations in which a functional analysis would be a more accurate and efficient choice of an assessment.

Imagine that a hypothetical client has come to you for assessment of a specific target behavior (either a behavior to increase or a behavior to decrease). What might that target behavior be? Using the requirements set forth by Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2019), write an operational definition of the target behavior. Then, using the ten guiding questions and suggestions regarding how to prioritize target behaviors provided by Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2019), address the social significance of the target behavior for the hypothetical client. Make a case for why this target behavior should be assessed and then intervened upon.

Imagine that a hypothetical client has come to you for assessment of a specific target behavior (either a behavior to increase or a behavior to decrease). What might that target behavior be? Using the requirements set forth by Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2019), write an operational definition of the target behavior. Then, using the ten guiding questions and suggestions regarding how to prioritize target behaviors provided by Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2019), address the social significance of the target behavior for the hypothetical client. Make a case for why this target behavior should be assessed and then intervened upon.

With the BACB’s Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts as your guide, consider some of the behavioral assessment formats covered in Chapter 1 of Functional Assessment and Program Development for Problem Behavior. Identify at least four unique ways in which a behavior analyst could violate the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts while conducting various behavioral assessments; include the specific section of the code that would be violated (e.g., “A BCBA could violate ‘1.05 Practicing within Scope of Competence’ by conducting an assessment for which he or she has not been properly trained. For example…”). For each of the ways in which the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts could be violated, provide a practical solution to the ethical quagmire. Next, consider the balance described by Bannerman et al. (1990) and Gore et al. (2019), and discuss whether there are any situations in which the client’s right to an effective behavioral assessment would outweigh the infringements on the client’s rights during the assessment process?

https://www.bacb.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Ethics-Code-for-Behavior-Analysts-230119-a.pdf