Abstract:
The current study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of Applied
Behavioral Analysis procedures for reducing the wandering behavior in hospitalized
patients with mental health issues. It was hypothesized that there would be significant
decrease in wandering behavior of hospitalized patients after application of
Differential Reinforcement for Alternate Behavior (DRA). A functional analysis
conducted together with the observation in order to select the participants according
to the sample requirement. Total of 5 participants were selected through purposive
sampling procedure. The entire study was divided into three phases: pre-intervention
phase, intervention phase and post-intervention phase along with follow-up
observations. The whole procedure was designed for one-month treatment plan with
4 days pre-intervention, 10 days intervention phase and 4 days post-intervention
phase. Data was recorded for each phase and later statistically computed through
sample mean method by using SPSS. The results of the study showed a significant
decline in pinpoint behavior ‘'Wandering” which was replaced by the target behavior
Sitting with the therapist . Factors like education level, family dynamics, rapport
building, time selection and mood of the participant were found to be contributing
factors in the process.
