Behavior Management Techniques Flashcards
7 cards from real AICPA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Behavior Management Techniques flashcards as text
Which of the following best illustrates the concept of stimulus discrimination in a professional accounting environment?
Answer: An auditor adjusts the level of scrutiny based on client-specific risk signals
Stimulus discrimination involves responding differently to distinct stimuli; adjusting audit scrutiny based on specific risk signals demonstrates this principle.
Goal-setting theory suggests that employee performance is maximized when goals are:
Answer: Specific, difficult but achievable, and accepted by the employee
According to Locke and Latham's goal-setting theory, specific and challenging (but attainable) goals that the employee accepts produce the highest performance levels.
In behavior management, 'fading' refers to:
Answer: Gradually reducing reinforcement as a behavior becomes established
Fading involves progressively withdrawing prompts or reinforcement as the target behavior becomes reliably self-sustained.
A manager praises an employee for correctly identifying a material misstatement immediately after discovery. This timing reflects which key principle of effective reinforcement?
Answer: Contiguity — the reinforcer should immediately follow the behavior
Contiguity (temporal proximity) between behavior and reinforcement is critical; immediate feedback creates the strongest behavior-consequence association.
Which approach best characterizes a management-by-exception strategy from a behavior management perspective?
Answer: Providing feedback only when performance deviates from the expected standard
Management by exception focuses managerial attention on deviations from standards, intervening only when behavior falls outside acceptable parameters.
Cognitive behavior modification (CBM) differs from traditional OB Mod primarily because CBM:
Answer: Incorporates internal thoughts and self-talk as legitimate targets for change
CBM extends traditional behaviorism by targeting internal cognitive events (thoughts, beliefs, self-talk) as part of the behavior change process.
When designing a behavior management intervention for a large accounting department, which evaluation method best determines if the intervention caused the observed performance change?
Answer: A reversal (ABAB) design that removes and reintroduces the intervention
An ABAB reversal design establishes causality by measuring behavior before, during, after removing, and after reintroducing the intervention, isolating its effect.