Case Study
Patient Demographic: Client Age: 8 Sex: Female Gender: Female Grade: 3rd Ethnicity: African American Counseling Setting: School-based Type of Counseling: Individual and Family Presenting Problem: Defiance Diagnosis: Oppositional Defiant Disorder 313.81 (F91.3)
Mental Status Exam: Mental Status Exam: The client displays an angry affect and sits with her arms crossed. She is well dressed and well groomed. The client’s PGM repeatedly prompts her to say, “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am” when answering questions. The client sits slumped in her chair. She agrees to color in a feelings thermometer that reflects increased anger, sadness, and fear. Her insight is poor. The client often refuses to eat school lunch, and the PGM reports that the client is a picky ea
Presenting Problem: You are a school-based mental health counselor conducting an initial intake with an 8-year-old African American female in the 3rd grade. The client presents today with her paternal grandmother (PGM), the client’s legal guardian. The PGM states that the client is argumentative, refuses to take responsibility for her actions, and has a tantrum when she receives a consequence for her behavior. She reports that the client is restricted from “every single privilege indefinitely.” The client has been told she can regain privileges once she “learns to act her age.” The client states she is treated unfairly and “blamed for everything” at home and school. The client’s teacher reports that she has difficulty following directions, is easily annoyed by her classmates, and frequently loses her temper. The client’s grades are poor, and she is below grade level in reading. However, she enjoys art and proudly reports that one of her pictures came in 1st place and is hanging in the library.
Other Contexts: You are meeting with the client individually and providing parenting training with the client’s PGM. The client’s teacher has implemented a behavioral chart for the classroom, and you ensure the client is receiving appropriate reinforcement for targeted behaviors. The teacher believes the client’s behavior indicates ADHD, and you have agreed to conduct classroom observations. During the observation, you note that the client gets out of her seat multiple times to sharpen her pencil. While doing so, she glares at other students and is observed balling up her fists and threatening others. The teacher yells at the client to sit down and stop disrupting the classroom, which has little effect on the client’s behavior.  The client receives a sticker from her teacher to positively reinforce predetermined operant behaviors

Question: The client receives a sticker from her teacher to positively reinforce predetermined operant behaviors. Which of the following is NOT a key principle of operant conditioning?
(A): Stimulus control
(B): Extinction
(C): Reproduction
(D): Punishment

Correct Answer: Reproduction
Explanation: Reproduction is a social learning concept rather than a key principle of operant conditioning. There are four phases of social learning: (1) attention (ie, noticing a particular behavior; (2) retention (ie, remembering the information); (3) reproduction (ie, imitating the behavior); and (4) motivation (ie, the desire to imitate the behavior). Principles of operant conditioning include extinction, punishment, reinforcement, and stimulus control. For extinction to occur, there must first be a reinforced response. Extinction happens when the reinforcer for that response is stopped, which lessens the possibility of the behavior’s recurrence. In operant conditioning, punishment is the presentation or removal of a circumstance or stimulus, resulting in the decreased probability of that response occurring. Finally, stimulus control is the process in which behavioral responses differentially happen in the presence or absence of particular stimuli. Therefore, the correct answer is (D)
Competency: professional practice and ethics