A component analysis dissects each part of a treatment package to determine exactly which piece is affecting behavior change (i.e., what we’re measuring).
The Big Question: Which part is the best part (or the worst part)?
Real Life Example
You’re at a boujee Sweet 16 and recognize you hate everybody because they’re annoying and entitled. You start demanding that everybody leave. You yell at one person at a time to grab their bejeweled shoes and leave the building immediately. After you ask one specific person to leave, you recognize that they were the reason you were so annoyed— not all the other kids.
Clinical Example:
The BCBA develops a treatment package including one antecedent intervention (e.g., noncontingent access to magazines), one functional communication training procedure (e.g., requesting time alone), and one response cost procedure (e.g., fining the client for every instance in which they make an inappropriate sexual remark). The team removes one part of the treatment package at a time (they may begin with removing the antecedent strategy, collecting baseline data, and then re-implementing the antecedent strategy and removing the functional communication training procedure) and continues to collect data to determine the most effective piece of the treatment package.
