What is functional behavior analysis?

Functional analysis of behavior seeks to determine the purpose of behavior., hence its name “functional”. Instead of looking for a cause, a trigger, an idea or a representation. Behavior obeys a function. Whenever we do something it obeys a reason and very different behaviors in their topography (shape) may be pursuing the same function.

Let’s imagine that a child wants to get his mother’s attention and to do so he has tantrums, he gets angry when his brother is there, he says he is sick at school so they can go pick him up, he has episodes of enuresis and also selective mutism. For functional analysis, these are all different behaviors that pursue the same function: getting their mother’s attention.

To get to know what function a behavior obeys, the clinician or therapist must understand the antecedents and consequences that occur when performing a certain problem behavior, to adequately reinforce another complementary behavior or learn a new, more adaptive behavior. The challenge is to observe the overall behavior of an individual and deduce its function: what does it allow it to obtain?

What is functional analysis based on?

Functional analysis is an interactive model that connects the problematic behavior to the patient’s cognitions and emotions in a given situation. With its antecedents on the one hand and its consequences on the other.

There is always an interaction between emotions, behaviors and cognitions. Functional analysis aims to understand the individual as a whole. Thoughts, images or emotions are also part of behavior.

Therefore, we must identify the explanatory variables (the independent and moderating variables) involved in the problematic behaviors (dependent variables) of an individual in their current and past life context.

The intervention in functional analysis

The intervention based on functional analysis seeks to replace the behavior identified as a problem with another more appropriate behavior. As a result, functional analysis is not a constraint system intended to “pinch” or “constrain.” Rather, it wants to understand the intrinsic logic of a behavior.

The approach is to look for what the purpose of the behavior is, hence its name “functional”, instead of looking for a cause, a trigger, an idea, a representation. Behavior has a function. It serves a purpose. This approach starts from behavior to understand its consequences through observation and analysis of the final situation.

Psychological cases according to the functional analysis of behavior

It is thanks to this conceptualization of cases that one will be distinguished from the categorical approach (1 pathology = 1 unique treatment). Rather, it wants to understand the intrinsic logic of a behavior and the individual as a whole, giving vital importance to the environment in which it develops.

The functional analysis It is characterized by prioritizing the following aspects when approaching a clinical case:

Identification of complaints made by the patient.Collection of data by direct observation and/or by the person themselves (we will create observation grids) allowing the passage to establish a baseline. Current knowledge is taken into account, a formulation of assumptions about the origin and maintenance over time.Prediction techniques to use derivatives directly from these hypotheses. It is discussed with the patient to choose a technique and modality of application to change the problematic behavior.Implementation of the therapeutic project is the application of the chosen techniques. If what we have implemented has no impact, we adjust our theory and our therapy.

During this stage, therefore, the therapist and the patient will explore together the problem in its diachronic dimension (history of the problem) and in its synchronic dimension (here and now).

Functional analysis: history of the problem

In functional analysis it is crucial to know the history of the problem and the patient. We will ask questions about the past, back to childhood if necessary, and try to understand how the disorder appeared. In these stories, we will look for the biological/genetic origins of your disorder, a familial, social, or cultural developmental origin.

The agoraphobic patient remembers very well when he panicked outside his house. Other disorders set in more insidiously: depressive suffering, generalized anxiety disorder, etc.

Often, disorders do not appear at any time in life. They appear at times when our coping strategies are undermined: times of stress, exhaustion, sometimes trauma.

The history of the person as a whole

In functional analysis we try to see how the person worked before and what the characteristics of their personality are.: pessimistic, optimistic, anxious, carefree, career, schooling, etc. An attempt is made to build an image of what the person is.

You have to know the medical component: know if there are genetic vulnerability factors, but also the history of coping with the disease experienced in the family. All of this could have caused vulnerabilities in the patient and given rise to predisposing or precipitating factors.

Functional analysis: analyze the current state of the patient

It is the “here and now” dimension, when the patient seeks help. Here the analysis is quite quantitative as we will ask you to answer questionnaires or keep a diary to promote self-observation.

It will be necessary to determine the starting point of the disorder for better objectivity in the differences in pretreatment and posttreatment results. In most cases we will try to know for each problematic behavior:

Frequency.Intensity.Duration.Its different forms of expression.

These measurements and information They will be useful in more ways than one, They will help us understand the dynamics of the problem and the vicious circles that maintain them. They also help compare the patient’s subjective experience with a quantitative measure.

What we evaluate with functional analysis

Problematic behaviors are evaluated, but also behaviors that are not problematic. Behaviors that are not indicative of possible patient resources. Sometimes situations that seem too close to each other can lead to behavioral problems in one case and not in the other.

For example, a person starts yelling in class when assigned a group assignment. We could say that she screams when she does not want to work with others, so she should not do group work. But We may not have taken into account all the times she did group work and did well. The key factor is perhaps elsewhere: noisy atmosphere, lack of significant companions, visible presence of fatigue, etc.

Conclusion

The psychotherapeutic treatment proposed in behavioral therapy is therefore derived from functional analysis and not from simple diagnosis.

Functional analysis already has intrinsic therapeutic virtues because it allows the person to begin to understand the mechanisms that seem to trigger and maintain their problems.

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