SPCE 315: Advanced Behavior Analysis

As you begin work on your Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) Project, you may find it useful to read research articles which used or discussed FBA. 

This page will provide guidance on how to use the University Libraries' databases called APA PsycInfo so that you have the background information to succeed on this project.

You're unlikely to find an article which outlines the use of a functional behavior assessment for the specific behavior you want to change.  But it can still be useful to read through the various ways that researchers have employed the FBA process to bring about behavior change.

APA PsycInfo will be a great database to use to find information on FBA.

You can click on the link (above) to get there, or, from the libraries' homepage at www.bsu.edu/library, you can scroll down to the "Databases" page and navigate alphabetically to 'APA PsycInfo.'

You can start by typing "functional behavior assessment" with quotation marks in the top search box.

TIP: Using quotation marks around a phrase or two or more words keeps the words together in the database search.

To bring up the most complete set of results, I recommend also searching on the phrase "functional behavioral assessment," because it seems that some authors prefer one phrase over the other -- but both phrases refer to the same thing.

Here's how you can search for both of those phrases: use OR between them, as shown here:

TIP: Don't forget those quotations marks, even thought the database autofill might suggest searching differently!

You'll have a big set of results at this point.

If you type another search term in the second box, your results will be narrowed to only those documents which include that word also.

For example, to search for those entries which have to do with Functional Behavior Assessment and sleep, you could do this search:

See below for:

• more ideas for limiting your results.

• how to use Find It @ BALL STATE to get to the full-text of your article

Also: Consider searching in ERIC (EBSCOhost) for information about FBA - you'll find many results there, too!

In both APA PsycInfo and ERIC (EBSCOhost), there are ways to place limiters on your search from the search results page.

Both databases allow you to specify the date range of the results you want.  Here we've chosen to only see articles published since 2010:

Click on the "Show More" link to see more ways in which you can limit your search.  These can be very helpful in certain circumstances.

Both ERIC and APA PsycInfo allow you to limit by Source Type on the results page.

In APA PsycInfo, it can be nice to kick out the dissertations, by clicking in the box next to "Academic Journals."

In ERIC (EBSCOhost) there are many types of documents included.  Again, choosing "Academic Journals" is often helpful when you're wanting to focus on research articles.