PSY7712 is the assessment core of Capella's Applied Behavior Analysis sequence, providing rigorous training in the assessment methods that behavior analysts use to identify what reinforces a client's behavior, what function a problem behavior serves, and what skills a client has and needs to develop. Precise, evidence-based assessment is the foundation of effective ABA intervention — the quality of a behavior-analytic behavior support plan can only be as good as the functional assessment that informed it. Students develop practical competency in conducting, interpreting, and reporting all major behavior-analytic assessment types, aligned with BACB task list requirements.
Preference assessment, functional assessment, and skills assessment
Core topics
- Preference assessment methods: The evidence base and procedures for identifying reinforcers through systematic preference assessment — free operant observation, single-stimulus (SS) presentation, paired-stimulus (PS/MSWO) presentation, and multiple-stimulus without replacement (MSWO) formats. Understanding that preference is variable and must be assessed repeatedly, and that preferred stimuli are not always effective reinforcers — bridging preference to reinforcer identification through reinforcer assessments
- Functional behavioral assessment (FBA): The regulatory and ethical basis for FBA (IDEA, BACB ethics), and the full spectrum of FBA methods: indirect assessment methods (structured interviews such as the MAS and FAST, rating scales, record review), direct observation methods (ABC data collection, scatter plot analysis, structured descriptive assessment), and functional analysis (experimental manipulation of antecedents and consequences to isolate the function of problem behavior). IISCA and brief FA as efficient alternatives to traditional FA
- Functional analysis methodology: The mechanics of conducting safe, ethically sound functional analyses — setting conditions (attention, demand, alone, play/control), reading FA data graphs, interpreting differentiated versus undifferentiated results, FA modifications (brief FA, latency-based FA, trial-based FA), and communicating FA results to caregivers and treatment teams
- Behavioral skills assessment: How to assess skill repertoires using curriculum-based assessment tools (ABLLS-R, VB-MAPP, PEAK, AFLS), task analysis as an assessment framework, and criterion-referenced versus norm-referenced approaches to skills assessment in ABA. Using skills assessment data to set socially valid treatment goals and sequence instruction
- Assessment data systems and reporting: Designing data collection systems for preference, functional, and skills assessments — frequency, duration, interval recording, permanent products — entering, graphing, and interpreting assessment data, and writing professional behavior-analytic assessment reports that communicate findings to stakeholders and directly inform treatment planning
- Ethical and cultural considerations in assessment: BACB ethics code requirements related to assessment (competence, informed consent, confidentiality), addressing cultural and linguistic factors that affect assessment validity, collaborating with caregivers and multidisciplinary team members, and avoiding assessment approaches that might inadvertently increase risk to clients
PSY7712 assignments include FBA data analyses, preference assessment designs, and behavior-analytic assessment reports
Our ABA specialists support PSY7712 behavior-analytic assessment work with expert guidance.
Get Help With PSY7712
FBA analyses, preference assessments, behavior-analytic reports.
Place Your OrderView All ServicesRelated courses
Frequently asked questions
A functional analysis (FA), developed by Iwata and colleagues in 1982, is an experimental methodology in which the antecedent conditions and consequences hypothesized to maintain problem behavior are systematically and separately tested while behavior is directly observed. By isolating one potential function at a time (for example, manipulating access to attention in one condition and access to escape from demands in another), the FA provides experimental evidence — rather than just correlational inference — about what actually reinforces the problem behavior. Indirect methods like structured interviews and direct observation-only methods can generate hypotheses about function, but only the FA tests those hypotheses experimentally and controls for confounds. The FA result (differentiated responding in one or more conditions compared to the control) directly informs function-based intervention: interventions developed from FA results consistently show larger and more durable reductions in problem behavior than those developed from indirect assessment alone. PSY7712 trains students in all major FA formats and modifications, equipping them to select and conduct the most appropriate FA methodology for each clinical situation while managing the ethical considerations of temporarily strengthening problem behavior in a controlled setting.