Which of the following lists the four common functions of behavior in ABA?

• A. Social Reinforcement, Automatic Reinforcement, Escape, and Attention
• B. Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment, and Extinction
• C. Escape/Avoidance, Attention, Access to Tangibles, and Sensory/Automatic Reinforcement
• D. Behavior Reduction, Data Collection, Supervision, and Ethics

Answer: (C)

Behavior is typically maintained by four main reasons: the person acts to escape or avoid something aversive, to gain attention from others, to obtain access to preferred tangibles or activities, or to receive internal sensory reinforcement from the act itself. When the behavior is to escape or avoid, it serves to terminate or dodge a demand or situation, like finishing a disliked task or avoiding an uncomfortable prompt. When it’s for attention, the behavior draws social response from others, which can reinforce continuing to seek that interaction. Access to tangibles means the behavior occurs to obtain a preferred item or activity, such as a toy or a break. Sensory/automatic reinforcement refers to internal sensations that the behavior produces, which are reinforcing in themselves even without anyone else’s involvement.

The other options don’t capture these four maintainers. One mixes reinforcement types with the idea of behavioral outcomes and doesn’t specify the separate, identifiable functions like access to tangibles or automatic reinforcement. The remaining choices describe procedures or program elements (like punishment, extinction, data collection, ethics, or supervision) rather than the reasons behavior continues to occur.