Function of Behavior
Also called: four functions, functions of behavior, attention, escape, tangible, automatic, SEAT
Definition
The purpose a behavior serves for the person, defined by the consequence that maintains it. Functional assessment usually sorts maintaining consequences into four kinds: attention from others, escape or avoidance of demands and situations, access to items or activities, and automatic (sensory) consequences produced by the behavior itself. Treatment is matched to function, not to what the behavior looks like.
In plain language
Why a behavior keeps happening — what it gets the person. Usually one of four things: attention, getting out of something, getting an item, or a feeling the behavior itself makes.
Example
A learner's crying stops the moment a worksheet is removed and starts again when it returns. Escape is the likely function.
Not function of behavior
Describing crying as loud, with tears, lasting about a minute. That is topography.
Commonly confused with
See also
Written from
- iwata-1982-1994
- hanley-iwata-mccord-2003
Written from Iwata et al. (1982/1994) and Hanley, Iwata and McCord (2003). No textbook glossary consulted.
This entry has not yet been through clinical review. Treat it as a draft.