What are single-subject designs?

- more "practice oriented" than group level designs (used by "practicioners" rather than "researchers."

- provide data re: how well a treatment intervention is working. used to monitor before and after termination.

- Used to study one individual or one group as opposed to studies using two or more groups of research participants

- can be exploratory, descriptive, or explanitory, showing respectively weak to strong causation between your intervention and variable.

- Setting Measurable Client Objectives (including clearly stating the target problem)

- Selecting valid and reliable outcome measures

- Graphically displaying the results

- clearly state the target problem

Target problem: A specific, measurable, client desired outcome objective. Can be feeling, behavior, knowledge level etc. measurable D.V.

- target problem may change during this process but must be precicely stated before moving to next step. ex. "increasing the amnt of time they spend together w/ friends" may become "visiting friends more often w/ Ben"

-  outcome measure must use a scienific method of measuring a variable

eg. Hudson's General Contentment Scale (clinical cutting score diferentiating significant problem level from nonsignificant problem level)

- target problem dealt with after expressd in measurable indicators, decide manner to measure those indicators

- Mention what tool will be used (HGC), who performs (subject or practicioner) the measurement, and under what circumstances (time of day/place recorded)

progress monitored by display of measurements through graphs

- measurement: assigning number or value to variable

e.g. 62 on GCS (client initial depression score)

- Changes in data will be plotted over time on a graph

- A Design

- B Design

- BB 1 Design

- BC Design

A design: Answers the question" is the problem changing by itself" establishes, through measurement, baseline for a client's problem. Min. of three data points needed to show trend. Indicates wether intervention is warranted.

B design: Answers the question "is the problem changing while an intervention is being applied."

BB1: using the same intervention twice (B phase and B1 Phase). In the second application of the intervention the frequency (ie. # of wkly visits) is simply increased.

BC:Using two different interventions.

- AB design

- ABC and ABCD designs

AB: an A (baseline) phase, followed by a B (intervention) phase. The lowest level showing both A and B implimented together.

ABC and ABCD designs (descriptive)

ABC:1 observation +2 dif interventions

examp. Observation+active listening excercise+role play exercise

ABCD:1 observarion +3 dif interventions

examp. Observation+active listening excercise+role play+relaxation exercise

Problem w/ both is becomes hard to tell which intervention did the trick.

Reversal Designs: (Take treatment away to see changes in dependant variable)

- ABA and ABAB designs

- BAB design

- BCBC design

Multiple-baseline Designs: several baselines taken - similar to ABAB but process is applied to:

- More than one case

- More than one setting

- More than one problem

Explanitory Single Subject

Reversal Design

- ABA and ABAB design:

ABA: A (no intervention), B (intervention), C (no intervention) shows that the intervention worked (causality) because baseline data is collected.

ABAB: same as ABA but intervention run twice.

- reintroducing B intervention second time to prove causality even stronger if intervention has similar effect when run again.

Explanitory Single Subject

Reversal Design

 - BAB design:

BAB:

because no baseline data collected first, does not establish causality (that your intervention worked) as ABAB does. can show how client improved when compared to state after intervention but not how how improved overall.

Explanatory Single Subject

Reversal Design

- BCBC design:

BCBC: B intervention followed by C intervention twice in succession.

- Used to strongly prove that one intervention or process is more effective than another.

- Unethical for clients but might use to compare 2 organizational processes in their efficiency.

Explanatory Single Subject

Multiple-baseline design

- More than one case:

More than one case: (multiple baseline study w/ more than one person) determines if one intervention will work with more than one client.

- Showing a series of AB single-subject designs that use the same intervention and displaying them on a graph side by side.

-ex. behavior modification therapy across adhd children. Given to Tom, Suzy and Albert (new graph for each child but everything same in intervention and observation)

Exlanatory Single Subject

Multiple-baseline design

- More than One Setting:

More than one setting: multiple baseline design given in more than one setting.

-ex. one adhd child given behavior modification therapy at school, home, and at daycare (new graph for each location but everything same in intervention and observation)

Explanatory Single Subject

Multiple-baseline design

- More than one problem:

More than one problem: easy (see pg. 231-234)

- Unit of Analysis: The individual, group, or artifact being studied.

Definitely on exam

"Solution focused Therapy"

From this: find where they used the test-retest method and hilight

- Impracticality: should be providing direct service not running tests

- Limited scope: many are only aplicable to very simple behaviors

- Limited validity: lack internal validity to state full cause and effect. lack external validity to generalize to broader population

- Inadequate time-series measures: tests can not be given for very long periods of time or become inneffective

- Individual focus: single subject designs are applied to individuals so some say can not be applied to systems. this is debated

- Little research on effectiveness