Purchase Solution

Single Subject Experiment

Not what you're looking for?

Ask Custom Question

Design a Small N study to change a behavior of your own or of someone with whom you have a great deal of contact. Explain the following
The target behavior and how it would be measured
The reinforcer that would be used and how it would be delivered
The particular Small N design you would use to demonstrate the effectiveness of the reinforcer and to demonstrate any behavioral change.

Purchase this Solution
Solution Summary

This solution discusses how to go about creating an experiment based on Skinnerian reinforcement principles and a small sample size. It covers the ABAB (or reversal) design of experiment. This solution can be helpful to those who are looking for an example of a single subject experiment.

Solution Preview

This is a fun one! I have actually designed a study like this to try on myself and it worked : )

Small N designs are great when you are working with one person or just a couple of subjects because the study can be designed so the subjects serve as their own controls. If you will actually be performing this study on yourself or another person I suggest you choose a relatively uncomplicated behavior to work with because this will be easier for you in the long run.

Your target behavior is the behavior you wish to change. Let's say that you want to decrease your little brother's disruptive behavior (e.g. shouting while the teacher is talking) in his 2nd grade class. Your target behavior is "shouting while the teacher is talking".

The next question asks you how this target behavior would be measured. To answer this you want to discuss the frequency of the behavior right now in a given time-period (baseline) and how this will be determined. In our example this might be "Johnny shouts when the teacher is talking 12 ...

Purchase this Solution
Free BrainMass Quizzes
Emotional Intelligence: A Beginning

An introduction to an emerging branch of Psychology-Emotional Intelligence.

Motion Perception

This quiz will help students test their understanding of the differences between the types of motion perception, as well as the understanding of their underlying mechanisms.

Concepts in Personality Psychology

This quiz will test student's understanding of concepts relating to personality psychology.

Theories of Work Motivation

This quiz tests the student's understanding of the major theories of work motivation from an organizational behavior perspective.

Perspectives of Psychology

A review of main theoretical perspectives and those most closely associated with them

View More Free Quizzes
Related BrainMass Solutions

  • Descriptive statistics

    ¢ Single-subject design - also a kind of single case research, this is typically used when the subject is 1 like an individual or a group (the group is considered 1 subject).

  • Single Subject Designs

    589708 Single Subject Designs The purpose of single-subject designs is to allow teachers to demonstrate experimental control and intervention effects with a single child or a small group of children.

  • Test for Single Samples

    Please assist on solving this problem using the "t" test for single samples.

  • Unique single-subject methods

    Which single-subject approach would you use here (baseline, discrete trials, dynamic), and why? A single subject experiment is very simple. There is no inherent reason why it should not be accurate, so long as the baseline data is correct.

  • Applied Research Questions

    The lack of randomness is due to the fact that it is not feasible or possible to have a random grouping as in the true experiment. This method tries to match the groups as close as possible with the available subject groups which are intact.

  • Experimental Design References

    In an experiment, what is a control? What is the purpose of a control group? Of single or multiple comparison groups? 6. What are confounds? Give an example of a design that has three confounds.

  • descriptive and inferential statistics

    What are the similarities between single-case and small-N research designs? What are the differences? When should single-case and small-N research designs be used?

  • Comparing experimental designs

    Using a matched-subject design, how many subjects participated in the experiment Twenty subjects participate. In a matched-subject design, 10 pairs of subjects are selected.

  • Internal Validity of True Experiements

    What distinguishes the type of experiment is the degree to which the experimenter can assign subjects to conditions. For example, three types of experiential designs include: True, Quasi- and Single-subject experiments.

  • Deciding Between Evolution and Creationism

    Part of what make science science is falsifiability, namely the idea that a single experiment can demonstrate that any scientific theory is false.

View More Related Solutions