GENERALIZATION OF FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS INTERVIEW SKILLS

Abstract

A packaged training program consisting of audiotape modeling, performance feedback, and behavioral rehearsal components was implemented in an analog setting to train five school psychology graduate students in functional analysis interview skills and measure the generalization of the skills across subjects, settings, and time. The set of target skills to be operationalized and trained was selected from the functional analysis of behavior interview outline developed by Kanfer and Saslow. Data were collected within a multiple baseline across subjects design for an analysis of the training effect, skill generalization, and social validation of the training treatment effect. Findings indicated that the training treatment program effected significant increases in interviewer performance over baseline levels for all subjects. These results were generalized across subjects, settings, and maintained over time. Social validation ratings indicated that the subjects exhibited more competent interview skills subsequent to training and under generalization conditions. Implications were made for future research relating to the psychometric validation of the interview assessment procedure.