FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF SELF-INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR AND ITS RELATION TO SELF-RESTRAINT

Some individuals who engage in self-injurious behavior (SIB) also exhibit self-restraint. In the present study, a series of three functional analyses were conducted to determine the variables that maintained a participant’s SIB, one without restraint items available, one with a preferred and effective form of self-restraint (an airplane pillow) available noncontingently, and one with this item delivered contingent on SIB. Results suggested that SIB was reinforced by escape and by access to self-restraint materials, self-restraint appeared to be maintained by automatic reinforcement, and continuous access to highly preferred restraint materials effectively suppressed SIB. DESCRIPTORS: self-injurious behavior, self-restraint, functional analysis _______________________________________________________________________________ Self-restraint is a behavior that has been observed as a correlate of self-injurious behavior (SIB; Smith, Lerman, & Iwata, 1996) and has been defined as preference for self-confinement of responding over SIB. A number of hypoth-eses regarding the operant mechanisms involved in the relation between SIB and self-restraint have been proposed. These include (a) SIB and self-restraint as members of the same response class (Derby, Fisher, & Piazza, 1996; Smith et al.), (b) SIB and self-restraint as functionally independent response classes (Smith et al.), (c) access to self-restraint serving as positive re-inforcement for SIB (Smith et al.; Vollmer & Vorndran, 1998), and (d) termination of SIB as negative reinforcement for self-restraint (Fisher