Introduction:
First define the concepts that are necessary for understanding.
1. BEHAVIOR: To ‘behave oneself’ originally meant literally to ‘have oneself in a particular way’ – have being used in the sense of ‘hold’ or ‘comport’. For much of history behave has been used with reference to a person’s bearing and public dignity. [Ayto]
The manner of one’s conduct: demeanor, deportment. [Funk & Wagnall]
Behavior then is the way we act, particularly as applied to social interaction. Behavior includes all of the physical and verbal innuendos such as facial expression, body language, and tone of voice. Behavior is what we perceive in the other person and is the content upon which we determine their feelings and motivations. When we see certain actions, we might conclude that the person is angry or frustrated. This might be as subtle as a ‘look’ which we cannot even assume to describe or as crass as obscene language, puffing of the chest and tightening of the fist.
2. EMOTION: Behavior is often connected to ‘feelings’. When we see someone do something, we often decide what they are ‘feeling’ – sad, frustrated, anxious, angry, etc. The very word e-motion implies behavior and the word ‘feeling’ is indicative of the sensory body changes that occur during emotional episodes.
EMOTION: The semantic notion underlying emotion – of applying ‘physical movement’ metaphorically to ‘strong feelings’ – is an ancient one. Latin used the phrase motus anima, literally ‘movement of the spirit’. From Vulgar Latin exmovre, literally ‘move out’. [Ayto]
‘Feeling’ sensations [hair raising on the back of the neck] then leads to emotions [cognitive mental representations of the feelings which denote the value of the experience – good/bad, pleasure/pain] as the body readies itself to move and these ‘feelings’ result in subtle, but identifiable changes in the appearance or demeanor of the person as they prepare to act. Depending upon whether the emotion is mediated or not, the action occurs. Often in social situations a person is described as ‘impulsive’, because from the outside perspective, the behavior should have been mediated and then controlled to either modify or eliminate the actual actions.
Since emotion is both an ‘early warning system’ and a preparatory process, the mediation of behavior must be learned. Impulsiveness or reflexive actions may seem unsophisticated in present day society, but the ability to respond instantaneously must have been evolutionarily selected, for it meant that the person lived long enough to pass on his/her genes.
There is some debate that the cognitive mental representations of emotion are ‘learned’ and that many children cannot tell the difference between ‘sadness’ and ‘anger’. The process of learning to label these ‘feelings’ effectively, including selection of proper words for degrees of intensity, is part of a emotional intelligence process.
There is also some mystery connected to ‘emotional contagion’. While in some cases it is clear [babies crying in the nursery] that there are behavioral signals, this is not always the case. Anger is particularly contagious. Again, some people learn to mediate their responses – inoculating themselves from much contagion.
In the final analysis, emotion [cognitive representation] is biographical [meaning that it is connected to prior learned experiences] and affect is biological [meaning that it is a physical process of either stimuli recognition or preparation for action. ‘Feeling’ is often used to describe both of these phenomenon.
3. THOUGHT: Thought, of course is related to think, which goes back to an Old English variant thincan ‘seem’ or ‘appear’, which survives in the archaic methinks [literally ‘it seems to me’], and so etymologically think probably carries the notion of ‘causing images, reflections, etc to appear to oneself, in one’s brain’. [Ayto]
THOUGHT: The act or process of using the mind actively and deliberately: meditation; cognition. The product of thinking: an idea, concept, judgement, opinion and the like. [Funk & Wagnall]
Thinking, from an evolutionary standpoint, is not nearly as archaic as feeling. Thinking to the extent that we now do in terms of abstract mental representations may have only begun some twenty to thirty thousand years ago. However, it seems that as we have developed complex behaviors requiring more than one action within a set; we learned to queue up our acts in specific order as required – [Vallacher]. Once able to mediate our ‘feelings’ with our mental representations, we began to take control of both our emotions and our behaviors; even to the point of deceit – we hide what we are feeling. Some people, of course, do this better than others.
These mental representations or thoughts are symbols of code within the individual brain. There are several levels of code – starting with the qualities of sensory input, which include qualities of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory and olfactory elements. The organization of these into quirks [hunches, intuitions, etc.] is a right brain idea. However, human beings tend then to translate these representations into language [words ], using first sensory words such as pain, taste, smell, etc., and then generalizing into more abstract thoughts about thoughts, each new abstraction becoming a new logical level. In such generalizations, information is lost, and this loss is often the cause of personal difficulty in living.
Normally, we think of thoughts as different from behavior. Partially this is because they are hidden or covert. But it is also because thoughts are not normally thought of as having force. But far from being benign, neuroscientists have learned that thoughts are electrical impulses that trigger electrical and chemical switches in the brain [Helmstetter]. Thus, thought instigates action [overt behavior] and has substantial impact upon how the person comports or ‘behaves’ him/herself. It is not the adrenaline that causes the ‘fear’; it is the thought generalization ‘fear’ that causes the adrenaline.
Thought and emotion are covert behaviors that instigate the overt behaviors as described above. As with most human behaviors, the thought, emotion and actions are neither positive nor negative in and of themselves, but are determined by the ‘function’ of the behavior for the individual, the contexts of the occurrence and the ‘perception’ and ‘interpretation’ of the behaviors by the other.
4. FUNCTION: The ultimate source of function is the Latin verb fungi ‘perform, discharge. [Ayto]
FUNCTION: The specific, natural or proper act that belongs to an agent. [Funk & Wagnall]
These definitions are not quite as helpful to us in our present deliberations as the earlier ones. The word function in regard to assessing our behavior is more related to the purpose of that behavior. It is connected to intentionality. What were the motives for using that particular set of actions – AND DID THE ACTIONS MEET THE TEST?
There is a presupposition that is necessary to make – at some level all behavior is (or at one time was) ‘positively intended’. It is or was perceived as appropriate given the context in which it was established, from the point of view of the person whose behavior it is.
No matter how seemingly odd, or mean, or outright wrong the behavior might seem to the observer, to the person engaging in that behavior, it makes sense, and they perceive it as a way of getting some outcome they want. ‘Positive’ in this sense can be defined as self-serving – this action is self protective or self promoting. From this ‘inner logic’ the acting person is often surprised to find that others see the actions as negative – I was only trying to ….!
People make the best choices they can with the information they have in consciousness. People would obviously not choose to do something self-defeating or foolish if they knew the consequences in advance, or had a better choice.
We often think of the cause of behavior in terms of purpose. S/he made me do it! – meaning – s/he caused me to do it – meaning my purpose was to respond to what s/he did IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH CERTAIN OBJECTIVES. The function of the behaviors therefore is connected to several variables: the environment [the context in which the stimulus occurred]; the stimulus itself [or at least the stimulus as perceived and interpreted by the individual]; the thought that occurred to the individual upon perceiving the stimulus [the mental representation of ‘meaning’ of the stimulus as modified by the person’s mental context – or cumulative conclusions of many experiences]; the feelings [sensations] that those thoughts aroused; the valuation of those feelings through additional mental representations; the goals that the thoughts and feelings engender; and the behavior repertoire which is available for response.
a. ENVIRONMENT: Whatever encompasses. The aggregate of all external and internal conditions affecting the existence, growth and welfare of the organism.
[Funk & Wagnalls]
b. STIMULATE: Latin stimulus denoted a ‘pointed stick for goading animals on’ [Ayto]
Stimulate: To rouse to activity or to quicken action by some agency or motive; spur. [Funk & Wagnalls]
c. MENTAL CONTEXT: Every conscious event is shaped by a number of enduring unconscious systems which we shall call ‘contexts’. Treat context as a relatively enduring system that shapes conscious experience, access and control, without itself becoming conscious; as coalitions of unconscious specialized processors that are ‘already committed’ to a certain way of processing their information. [Paraphrased from Baar]
d. GOAL: The earliest examples of what can confidently be identified as the word goal come from the first half of the 16th century, when it was used for both the ‘finishing line of a race’ and ‘posts through which the ball is sent in football’. [Ayto]
GOAL: A point toward which effort or movement is directed; the objective point or terminus that one is striving to reach; the end aimed at; the goal of one’s ambition. [Funk & Wagnalls]
e. REPERTORY: A repertory is etymological a list of things ‘found’. [Ayto]
REPERTOIRE: An inventory [Funk & Wagnalls]
A behavior repertoire would be an inventory or list of behaviors available.
There is a lot happening within a fraction of a second – and almost all of it is not conscious.
5. ASSESS: The literal meaning of Latin assidere, the ultimate sources of assess, was to ‘sit beside someone’. This developed the secondary meaning ‘sit next to a judge and assist him in his deliberations’. [Ayto]
ASSESS: To value for taxation. [Funk & Wagnalls]
An assessment therefore is a VALUE. The assessment process is one of eVALUEation. Determining what exists.
6. FUNCTIONAL COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT:
a. WHO: people who sit beside the person
b. WHAT: a process of valuing the covert purpose
of overt behavior
and developing a behavior inventory.
c: WHEN: when behaviors are perceived as not helpful
d. WHERE: wherever the person sits.
e. WHY: in order to determine whether the purpose
is reached by the behavior and whether
the purpose could be better served by
other means; and by providing other means.
Functional assessment is a method for describing abilities and activities in order to measure an individual’s use of the variety of skills included in performing the tasks necessary to daily living, vocational pursuits, social interactions, leisure activities and other required behaviors. [Granger, 1984] It is based on the notion of observing the child’s behavior and inquiring about a child’s thoughts along a time continuum. Behavior is defined as those functional activities people do while conducting their daily business. We can define four levels of behavior:
• mechanical: motor and neural functions
• integrative: ability to do a task
• social: the ability to interact with and function around
others
• cognitive: the ability to mediate action
These observations are systematic, objective and goal oriented. We define the child’s level of function as a goal and measure progress towards the goal over time.
This may be a more formal way of articulating what we have been discussing.
Examples:
• mechanical: open and close your hand
• integrative: use a spoon to eat soup
• social: go into a restaurant for a meal.
• cognitive: impulse control through self talk
For those of you who have a strong behavioral background and familiarity with functional behavior assessments and behavior plans, there needs to be made a distinction about how it is used cognitively. Traditionally, approaches to behaviors have been based on behavioral theories that address manipulation of the external environment and skill building. While both of these continue to be important facets, we have added an additional focus on cognitive strategies. In fact, we suggest that positive behavioral approaches are much more effective in dealing with children whose disability influences behavior [e.g., mental retardation, developmental disability, autism, etc.]. However, cognitive approaches are much more successful for children whose disability IS behavior and whose behavior is based upon anger, fear, sadness and other emotional states. A transition group would be identified as those children like those with a diagnosis of both mental retardation and mental disorder. These are children who are sufficiently cognitively aware of their own deficiencies to THINK about the frustration and form emotional states in this regard [thoughts about thoughts which lead to abstractions]. It should be apparent to most practitioners that those children with MILD mental retardation are most likely to fall into this category, while those with profound mental retardation rarely do.
A Functional Cognitive Behavior Assessment would be one that discovers the ‘inner logic’ of both the child being assessed and his or her significant caretakers. The thoughts of a care manager are highly significant to the thoughts of the child being managed. The ‘messages’ that they share significantly contribute to the beliefs that they share.