Publication Date

Spring 2019

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Dr. Carl Myers (Director), Dr. Sarah Ochs, and Dr. Adam Lockwood

Degree Program

Department of Psychology

Degree Type

Specialist in Education

Abstract

This study was a replication of a study by Hosp et al. (2003), which looked at items on behavior rating scales to determine if they can be used to plan and monitor positive behavior interventions. For this study, ten forms of commonly used behavior rating scales were selected, and the so what and dead man tests were applied on each scale. Each item on the scale was placed into one of four categories: positive action, negative action, lack of positive action, and lack of negative action. Then, these categories were used to rate each scale to determine which subscales survived, or were deemed useful for measuring increases in positive behavior. Eight of the ten scales were found to contain a majority of negative action items and some lack of action items, neither of which are useful in measuring positive behaviors. Only two scales, the parent and teacher versions of the BERS-2, were found to contain all positive action items, and therefore were the only scales to fully survive the dead man test. The results of this study show that the majority of commonly used behavior rating scales today still do not contain primarily positive action items, and therefore have not majorly improved in the last fifteen years, although all of the behavior rating scales contained subscales that could have potential to plan and monitor positive behavior interventions.

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Clinical Psychology | Psychology | School Psychology

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