Using Mood Ratings and Mood Induction in Assessment and Intervention for Severe Problem Behavior*

The literature on problem behavior documents the need for developing methods for assessing the impact of broad contextual variables. It has been suggested that the impact of some of these variables can be captured in mood ratings. We examined this possibility by observing whether there was a correlation between mood ratings and subsequent display of problem behavior. Further, we developed an intervention based on mood induction for altering these ratings and observed whether these alterations were correlated with changes in the likelihood of problem behavior. Our data demonstrated that bad mood ratings were highly predictive of problem behavior. Further, when we implemented our induction procedure to improve mood ratings, we subsequently observed dramatic decreases in problem behavior.