Background/history of ABA

Question 1

What is a big advantage of ABA?

Answer 1

Prediction and influence

Question 2

What are the 3 impacts of Skinner’s ABA?

Answer 2

Environmental innovation: emphasised experimental control.
Initiated a new field of research: experimental analysis of behaviour.
Real world influence: impacted applied settings.

Question 3

Give 4 criticisms of Skinner

Answer 3

1. Dehumanisation (not appreciating the unique qualities of humans.
2. Denying free will.
3. Creating an approach that allowed people to manipulate others.
4. His account of human behaviour: verbal behaviour –> radical behaviourism (expanded his principles to apply/account for human cognition); controversial.

Question 4

What did Chomsky’s article about Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour criticise it for and lead to?

Answer 4

Said that Skinner’s behaviourism could not account for the generativity of language.
Lead to cognitive psychology becoming the dominant area of psychology – the way people think influences how they behave; investigate the role of mental processes in behaviour; human behaviour cannot be fully understood without examining how people acquire, store, and process information.

Question 5

How does behaviourism live on?

Answer 5

The terminology is still used.
Principles of ABA are still used in many applied settings.
It has the advantage of prediction and influence.
It hasn’t fallen foul the replication crisis in psychology.
Its journals, books, and societies are still popular.
It aligns well with other well-supported movements in psychology.
Contemporary applications which are thriving: therapy, language, education, group functioning.