A-2 Explain The Philosophical Assumptions Underlining The Science Of Behavioral Analysis Flashcards
Selectionism
An individual or a group is selected to occur and continue, stop or change based on their experiences, and ultimately in order to survive.
Ontogenic selectionism
Behaviors of an individual are learned through their selection consequences during their lifetime.
Ex: Carol stopped drinking milk because she got very sick by drinking it last time.
Phylogenetic Selectionism
Not learned. Behaviors with a group of organisms are adapted throughout evolutionary history. The behaviors are not learned through an individual’s prior history.
Ex: Dog circling before it slaying down is is phylogenetic. The behavior is adapted throughout the dog’s evolutionary history.
Cultural Selectionism
Certain behaviors of an individual are learned from another individual or a group to help the individual survive.
Determinism
The universe is a lawful and orderly place in which all phenomena occur as the result of other events.
Cause & Effect
Empiricism
Facts
Practice of behavioral observation and measurement.
Open to anyone’s observation.
Completely defined systematically, observed, and accurately in reliably measure occurrences and non-occurrences of the behavior of interest.
Open to anyone’s observation, and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist.
Objective observation
Requires objective quantification and detailed description of events.
Experimentation
Basic strategy for most sciences
Manipulating variables so as to see the effects on the dependent variable.
Assessment to determine if one event caused another event.
To investigate the possible existence of functional relation an experiment must be performed in which factors suspected of having causal status, or systematically, controlled and manipulated, while the effects of the event under study are carefully observed.
Replication
Repeating experiments
The method that scientist used to determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings .
How scientist discover their mistakes, thus making science of self correcting enterprise .
There is no required number of replications.
Parsimony
The simplest theory
All simple and logical explanations must be ruled out before considering more complex explanations
Help scientist findings with the fields existing knowledge base
Assumptions and Attitudes of Science
Determinism
Empirism
Experimentation
Replication
Parsimony
Philosophic Doubt
Functional Analysis
Functional relations between environmental variables and behavior.
Informs the design of effective treatments.
Philosophical Doubt
Requires the scientist to continually question the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact.
