SABA Doctoral Dissertation Grant Recipients
2011: Soyeon Kang (University of Texas at Austin)
Ms. Kang is a doctoral candidate in the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Program in the Department of Special Education at the University of Texas at Austin. She has worked with children with and without disabilities for over 7 years as a researcher and teacher. Her main research interests include functional behavior assessments and evidence-based interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developmental disabilities who have problem behaviors. Ms. Kang's career goal is to improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families. During her graduate studies, she has participated in several lines of research in the area of ASD and developmental disabilities under Dr. Mark O'Reilly's supervision. One of her goals is to pursue research that can be concretely applied in practice and directly benefit individuals with disabilities. She is currently completing her dissertation on "an evaluation of the rate of problem behavior maintained by different reinforcers across preference assessments."
Ms. Kang's interest in the topic stemmed from a practical challenge. She was conducting a preference assessment with a child with ASD. However, the child displayed problem behavior whenever his chosen item was withdrawn. He resisted choosing any other item so she could not continue the assessment. This inspired a question about the functions of problem behavior, which resulted in the study to examine if the occurrence of problem behavior maintained by different reinforcers exhibited a different tendency across different preference assessment formats. According to the results, problem behavior maintained by a particular reinforcer occurred more in the format where the evoking condition is present than where it is absent. Thus, format selection could help avoid problem behavior during preference assessments. This is important because if any variable conflicts with the implementation method of an assessment, results may be affected, leading to ineffective intervention.
Ms. Kang was nominated as an awardee of the 2011 Doctoral Dissertation Grant by the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA). She feels honored and sincerely thanks the supporters at the SABA. SABA's encouragement and support will be a powerful reinforcement to continuously and actively pursue her research and career goals.
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