Functional Analysis Assessments Overview

This article provides an overview of Functional Analysis Assessments that can be used for Student Assessments. 

For instructions on how to create a Functional Analysis Assessment see Create a Functional Analysis Assessment.

Functional Analysis Overview

A Functional Assessment of a Behavior (aka Functional Behavioral Assessment or FBA) is an assessment of the relationship between a person’s Target Behaviors and their environment.

Different levels of a FBA include indirect sources of information (e.g., interviews, questionnaires, rating scales, etc.), descriptive sources of information (e.g., direct observations, data collection of antecedents, behaviors and consequences, or “ABC” data), and experimental sources of information, which are often referred to as functional analyses. When conducting Functional Analyses, Antecedents and Consequences are manipulated in a controlled manner in an attempt to isolate their effects on Target Behavior(s).

Functional Analyses can be designed to include a variety of different Conditions. The Functional Analysis tools have been designed with preset defaults to include the following conditions, which are most widely used and supported by the most empirical evidence.