The present study was a preliminary analysis of college students’ willingness to self-isolate and socially isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic analyzed through a probability discounting framework. Researchers developed a pandemic likelihood discounting task where willingness to isolate from others was measured in days as a function of the perceived probability of the escalation of a virus to pandemic levels. Experiment 1 was conducted immediately prior to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a pandemic and results showed that participants were more willing to self-isolate when the perceived probability of reaching pandemic levels was high and when there was a guarantee that others in the community would do the same. Experiment 2 was conducted with a subset of participants from Experiment 1 with the same discounting task, and results showed that participants were more willing to self-isolate 2 months following the onset of the pandemic, supporting the view that willingness to isolate from others is a dynamic process. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated willingness to socially distance and introduced a hypothetical timescale to evaluate common trends with the real-world temporal dynamics observed in Experiments 1 and 2. Results showed similar trends in the data, supporting the use of hypothetical scenarios within probability discounting tasks in future behavior analytic research related to public health.
Comorbid diagnoses including autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and intellectual disability can present a variety of personal barriers and challenges to interventions that promote safety and autonomy. The current case study provides an overview of a 10-week intervention that included elements of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and contingency contracting to target psychological flexibility and aggressive behavior in a 17-year-old presenting with these comorbid diagnoses. The treatment was fully individualized to include the client’s interests in Star Wars and focused on supporting the client’s self-identified valued outcomes associated with independent living. Prior to intervention, baseline data showed high levels of aggressive behavior in both frequency and duration, and low levels of psychological flexibility and adaptive behaviors were reported. Following implementation of the combined intervention, aggressive behavior reduced significantly below baseline levels, psychological flexibility improved, and the client engaged in a greater frequency of adaptive behaviors relative to baseline. Positive outcomes were also maintained 1-month and 1-year following the intervention. Implications of this case for clinicians and staff are discussed.
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