Aslam, a 12-year-old, gets too tired by evening to complete his homework. This is because he goes off for football training soon after school. The school counsellor advised Aslam to reduce his football training time and increase his weekend practice time. This way, Aslam will not be too tired and will be able to complete his homework. Identify the antecedent operation:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Reduce his football training time on weekdays
Option (1) Not completing his homework — Incorrect. This is the faulty behaviour that the treatment wants to change, not the operation used to change it.
Option (2) Playing football after school — Incorrect. This is what now precedes the homework and makes Aslam too tired, the antecedent factor of the problem. An antecedent operation is the change made to it.
Option (3) Reduce his football training time on weekdays — Correct. Antecedent operations control behaviour by changing something that precedes such a behaviour. Just as reducing food at tea time makes a child hungry at dinner, cutting the weekday training changes what comes before the homework, so Aslam is not too tired to do it.
Option (4) Completing his homework happily — Incorrect. This is the wanted behaviour the treatment aims at. Something done after it, such as praising Aslam, would be a consequent operation.
NCERT (2025-26): “Behaviour Therapy … The aim of the treatment is to extinguish or eliminate the faulty behaviours and substitute them with adaptive behaviour patterns. The therapist does this through establishing antecedent operations and consequent operations. Antecedent operations control behaviour by changing something that precedes such a behaviour. The change can be done by increasing or decreasing the reinforcing value of a particular consequence. This is called establishing operation. For example, if a child gives trouble in eating dinner, an establishing operation would be to decrease the quantity of food served at tea time. This would increase the hunger at dinner and thereby increase the reinforcing value of food at dinner. Praising the child when s/he eats properly tends to encourage this behaviour. The antecedent operation is the reduction of food at tea time and the consequent operation is praising the child for eating dinner. It establishes the response of eating dinner.…” |