Anna Operant Conditioning Case Study PDF

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Anna Operant Conditioning Case Study History: Anna is a six-year-old girl who is very prone to temper tantrums. She lives with her mother (Jenny), her father (Josh) and her older sister Sarah, age eleven. It is typical for the two girls to scream and fight with one another. The mother (Jenny) tries to avoid conflict and often tells her daughters that their father will punish them if they continue fighting. At other times the mother sides with the younger daughter (Anna) telling the older child that she is, “older and therefore is responsible for keeping her sister happy”. The father typically puts both girls in "time out" when he has been informed that they were fighting. Time Out is being defined as the removal from a desired situation. Current Episode: Anna and Sarah are in the backyard playing, Sarah has been trying to read a book for over an hour; but Anna keeps interrupting her. Anna has been pleading with Sarah on and off to play school with her. Sarah has attempted to ignore her, and on several occasions asked Anna to, "Please Stop". Anna has escalated her behavior and is now yelling at Sarah telling her that if she doesn't come and play school with her that she is, "Telling Mom!" Sarah ignores Anna. Anna runs into the house screaming that her sister would not play with her. 1. When Anna escalated her behavior and yells at Sarah, Anna’s yelling and then later running into the house to, “tell mom!” is acting as a/an _____ for Sarah ignoring her requests. The mother (Jenny), tired from a days’ work, becomes frustrated with the older daughter, Sarah for not entertaining her younger sister. She tells Anna to go out and get her sister. 2. Explain how the Mother is teaching Anna to tattle on her sister. Her mother is teaching Anna to tattle on her sister because it’s showing Anna that if she tells, she gets what she wants. 3. Explain what Anna is teaching her mother

Anna is teaching her mother that she needs her help. Anna and Sarah enter the house; Sarah is fuming. The mother tells Sarah she will be playing school with her sister now. Sarah and Anna return to the yard. Sarah closes her book and sits down to play school with her younger sister. 4. Has the mother increased or decreased the chances Sarah will sit outside reading a book in the future? How has this occurred? The mother has decreased chances that Sarah will ever be able to sit outside and read a book because the mother has shown Anna that Sarah needs to entertain her and that Anna can interrupt Sarah’s plans anytime to get what she wants. 5. What has the mother taught Anna about the consequences of tattling on Sarah? Is Anna likely to tattle again in the future? If so why? The mother has shown that if Anna tattles on Sarah, she will get what she wants. Anna is very likely to tattle again in the future because she has been shown that she can get what she wants and that there won’t be a bad consequence if she tattles. A while later the father Josh arrives home. The mother informs him of the altercation between his daughters. When he goes into the yard Anna and Sarah are playing school happily. Tired from his day at work he tells the girls they must be punished for fighting. He informs them that they will each be spending ten minutes in time out. They immediately go to time out. 6. Since the punishment the father meted out came as the girls were playing happily this could be very confusing to the girls. Why and how might this be? This could be very confusing to the girls because they were doing what they were told to do and, they were playing happily. It would be a different story if they were fighting still. But they are getting punished while they are getting along. 7. Explain how Josh and Jenny could change the current behaviors by using positive reinforcement (teaching a behavior they would like to see in their children)

Josh and Jenny could maybe praise the girls for playing together happily more often so that Sarah wants to play with Anna rather than being forced to....