Antisocial Behavior Interventions

Treatment and interventions for antisocial behavior are limited to treatments that target overall behavioral improvement. This paper will discuss the potential improvements in interventions for individuals with antisocial behavior, through the help of neurological understandings of the brain. Neurological understandings of the brain can help develop interventions that can improve behavior among the youth for better behavioral outcomes in adulthood. Current interventions give the tools for individuals to learn from presenting behavioral problems, but they do not address the core of the problem in identifying the mechanisms behind impaired responses for future contingencies. Also, neurological understandings can help with the development of

This research focuses on two models, PMT and PSST. The PMT model targets the interactions between the parent and the child in all social and living environments, this model focuses on using operant conditioning to alter behaviors of concern. The second model researched, PSST, focuses on how individuals understand and interpret the world around them. Kazdin (2011) found that Individuals who cannot code and interpret what is going on around them are more likely to engage in conduct problems due to their cognition possessing limitations. This model teaches individuals to identity problems and discusses positive and negative outcomes to possible solutions (Kazdin,

Gregory et al. (2015) used MRI scans and reinforcement test to study how the brain reacts to reversal learning within offenders with antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy. The tasks in the study are designed to determine an individual’s skill to learn and alter stimulus response in relation to the roles of change contingencies (Gregory et al.,2015). The learning process is called the acquisition phase, while the altering learning process is called the reversal phase (Gregory et al.,2015). During the acquisition phase in the study, two pictures were provided, neither pictures had any relation to one another. Each photo was associated with positive or negative feedback, allowing for a legitimate correct answer to be developed through the process of limitation. When the correct photo was chosen points were awarded and when the incorrect photo was chosen points were taken away. During the reversal phase in the study, participates were punished for choosing what was once known as the correct answer. This study demonstrates that in order to improve behaviors related to contingency events it is essential to know exactly during which phase of learning the individual deficiency has occurred. Gregory et al. (2015) found that the offenders had a harder time learning from negative reinforcement, meaning that their