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behavior modification http bmo sagepub com development and psychometric evaluation of an instrument to assess reinforcer preferences the preferred items and experiences questionnaire edward p sarafino and james a graham ...

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                  Behavior Modification 
                                  http://bmo.sagepub.com
     Development and Psychometric Evaluation of an Instrument to
          Assess Reinforcer Preferences: The Preferred Items and 
                              Experiences Questionnaire 
                        Edward P. Sarafino and James A. Graham 
                                 Behav Modif 2006; 30; 835 
                             DOI: 10.1177/0145445506291393 
                    The online version of this article can be found at: 
                 http://bmo.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/30/6/835
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                        © 2006 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized
                                              distribution.  
                      Development and Psychometric
                Evaluation of an Instrument to Assess
                               Reinforcer Preferences
                         The Preferred Items and Experiences
                                          Questionnaire
                                      EDWARD P. SARAFINO
                                        JAMES A. GRAHAM
                                         The College of New Jersey
             The Preferred Items and Experiences Questionnaire (PIEQ) is a new instrument to assess rein-
             forcer preferences in adolescents and adults. Research was conducted with college and high
             school students to develop the PIEQ, to examine its reliability with test-retest and internal con-
             sistency methods, and to test its validity. This research provides support for the PIEQ’s relia-
             bility and validity.
             Keywords:  assessment; reinforcer; preferences
             The application of effective reinforcers is a cornerstone of behav-
             ior modification program design and implementation. Determining
             which consequences will reinforce a person’s behavior can be
             accomplished in several ways (Sarafino, 2001). For example, one
             way uses structured tests, presenting an array of stimuli and observ-
             ing which ones the person chooses. Research has shown that rein-
             forcers identified with structured tests of individuals’preferences are
             AUTHORS’NOTE:We are indebted to Edward Barry, principal of Ewing High School, and
             the school’s teachers for designating and preparing the classes for recruitment and for encour-
             aging students to participate. We also thank W. Daniel Phillips for statistical advice.
             Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Edward P. Sarafino,
             Department of Psychology, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628; e-mail:
             sarafino@tcnj.edu.
             BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION,Vol. 30 No. 6, November 2006  835-847
             DOI: 10.1177/0145445506291393
             © 2006 Sage Publications
                                                                                         835
                                 Downloaded from http://bmo.sagepub.com by on November 8, 2007 
                         © 2006 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized
                                                 distribution.  
            836   BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION / November 2006
            more effective in changing the behavior of those people than are
            reinforcers identified solely on the basis of staff or caregiver opinion
            (Green, Reid, Canipe, & Gardner, 1991). Another method for assess-
            ing reinforcer preferences has the individual rate his or her liking of
            potential reinforcers in a questionnaire.
               The Reinforcement Survey Schedule (RSS) is a very detailed and
            extensive questionnaire for assessing possible reinforcers for adults
            (Cautela & Kastenbaum, 1967). It lists 148 potential reinforcers and
            has respondents rate each for the “pleasure it gives,” using a 5-point
            scale from not at all to very much, and it takes 20 to 30 minutes to
            complete. Research has found evidence of the instrument’s validity
            (Cautela & Lynch, 1983) and has shown that it has good reliability,
            with median test-retest correlations ranging from .67 to .73 for the full
            scale (Kleinknecht, McCormick, & Thorndike, 1973). Different ver-
            sions of the RSS have been developed for specific populations, such
            as adolescents and individuals with certain psychiatric disorders, and
            the scale has been useful in research and in treating clients in private
            practice and institutions (Cautela & Lynch, 1983). But the various ver-
            sions of the RSS have limitations. For example, many of the rein-
            forcers they list could be difficult or unethical to control and
            administer, such as “nude men” and “being right in an argument.”
            Other reinforcers are specified in extreme detail, as in the 17 listed
            types of reading material (e.g., “mystery,” “travel,” and “science”),
            making the survey long to fill out.
               Because of these limitations, we have developed a new survey to
            assess reinforcer preferences—a 59-item instrument, called the
            Preferred Items and Experiences Questionnaire (PIEQ), that is intended
            for use with adolescents and adults. An important advantage of the
            PIEQ is that almost all of the reinforcers it lists can be controlled and
            administered by professionals, such as therapists and teachers, and by
            family members and clients (in self-management). Two studies were
            conducted to develop the PIEQ and assess its psychometric properties.
                            STUDY 1—METHOD AND RESULTS
               An initial version of the PIEQ was developed by perusing the rel-
            evant literature and by interviewing college students to identify
                               Downloaded from http://bmo.sagepub.com by on November 8, 2007 
                        © 2006 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized
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                            Sarafino, Graham / ASSESSING REINFORCER PREFERENCES      837
             items or experiences they think teenagers and adults like or find
             pleasurable. These procedures identified 49 potential reinforcers that
             were separated for the questionnaire into seven thematic categories
             (see Sarafino, 2001, Figure 4.2, for the complete scale). Study 1 was
             carried out to examine the items in the initial version of the PIEQ,
             make changes to them, and assess the scale’s reliability and validity.
             PARTICIPANTS
                The participants in Study 1 were 52 undergraduates enrolled in an
             upper-division psychology course; approximately 86% were
             females.
             MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE
                The thematic categories of the initial PIEQ version and examples
             of the reinforcers included are: tangible items (e.g., new clothes,
             music recordings); foods (candy, popcorn); beverages (soft drinks,
             juices); outcomes for work, chores, or skills (money, praise or feed-
             back); friends’ or relatives’ actions (giving affection, invitation for a
             party); passive leisure activities (watching TV, listening to music);
             and active leisure activities (playing athletics, reading). No category
             had fewer than five reinforcers in it. The instructions asked the par-
             ticipants to use a 5-point scale (0 = not at all,4 = very much) to “rate
             how much you like to receive, have, or do” each item or experience.
             The participants were also told to assume that the items or experi-
             ences available for each listed reinforcer were “about as good as they
             could get” for that type of reinforcer (i.e., ones “you would choose
             from an array” of similar options). Each category had spaces in
             which participants could add items or experiences that were not
             included in the list.
                Testing was conducted in three 10- to 15-minute sessions during
             class periods, 1 week apart, beginning with the first meeting of the
             semester. The students were not told in advance that testing would
             occur. To coordinate surveys across sessions and maintain
             anonymity, each participant composed and wrote on the materials a
             code based on his or her birth month and home zip code. For the first
             and third sessions, the procedure was exactly as described above; the
                                Downloaded from http://bmo.sagepub.com by on November 8, 2007 
                        © 2006 SAGE Publications. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized
                                               distribution.  
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...Behavior modification http bmo sagepub com development and psychometric evaluation of an instrument to assess reinforcer preferences the preferred items experiences questionnaire edward p sarafino james a graham behav modif doi online version this article can be found at cgi content abstract published by www sagepublications additional services information for email alerts subscriptions reprints journalsreprints nav permissions journalspermissions downloaded from on november sage publications all rights reserved not commercial use or unauthorized distribution college new jersey pieq is rein forcer in adolescents adults research was conducted with high school students develop examine its reliability test retest internal con sistency methods validity provides support s relia bility keywords assessment application effective reinforcers cornerstone ior program design implementation determining which consequences will reinforce person accomplished several ways example one way uses structure...

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