Operant Techniques in School Psychology

Abstract

In recent years there has been increasing recognition of the fact that the role of the school psychologist in this country is changing. The conception of the school psychologist as psychometrician and clinician has given way to the notion that the school psychologist may best serve school needs by functioning as a consultant to the school (Derner, 1965; Leton, 1964; McDaniel & Ahr, 1965; Schmidt & Pena, 1964). A major part of consultant service involves work with teachers regarding the problems of children. The purpose of the present article is to describe the usefulness of operant techniques in enabling the school psychologist to implement effectively this aspect of his newly acquired consultant role. In a child's environment events precede and follow behavior. Events subsequent to behavior may accelerate the behavior, decelerate the behavior, or have no observable effect. Most subsequent events in a child's environment occur unsystematically. When the school psychologist aids teachers in arranging planned schedules of particular events to follow specific child behavior the operant approach is being employed. Figure 1 illustrates the operant paradigm.