chapter 1 Definition and Characteristics of Applied Behavior Analysis Flashcards
It is a scientific approach for discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and for developing a technology of behavior change that takes practical advantage of those discoveries
ABA
a systematic approach for seeking and organizing knowledge about the natural world.
Science
description,
prediction, and
control
3 levels of scientific understanding
Descriptive knowledge consists of a collection of facts about the observed events that can be quantified, classified, and examined for possible relations with other known facts—a necessary and important activity for any scientific discipline.
Description
Repeated observations reveal that two events consistently covary with each other.
When systematic covariation between two events is found, this relationship—termed a correlation—can be used to predict the relative probability that one event will occur, based on the presence of the other event.
Prediction
Highest, level of scientific understanding.
A functional relation exists when a well-controlled experiment reveals that a specific change in one event (the dependent variable) can reliably be produced by specific manipulations of another event (the independent variable), and that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely to be the result of other extraneous factors (confounding variables).
Control
Determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony, and philosophic doubt
6 attitudes of science
The universe is a lawful and orderly place in which all phenomena occur as the result of other events.
Determinism
The practices of objective observation of the phenomena of interest.
demands objective observation based on thorough description, systematic and repeated measurement, and precise quantification of the phenomena of interest.
Empiricism
an experiment is a carefully conducted comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another.
Experimentation
The repeating of experiments.
It is the primary method with which scientists determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings and discover their mistakes.
Is the primary reason science is a self-correcting enterprise that eventually gets it right.
Replication
all simple, logical explanations for the phenomenon under investigation be ruled out, experimentally or conceptually, before more complex or abstract explanations are considered.
Parsimony
The scientist to continually question the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact.
evaluates continually its effectiveness once the practice has been implemented.
Good scientists maintain a healthy level of skepticism.
Philosophic doubt
CASE
Conceptual Analysis of Behavior
ABA
Behavior Service Delivery
Experimental Analysis of Behavior
4 Branches of Behavior Analysis
The philosophy of the science of behavior
Environmental (i.e., not mentalistic) explanation of behavior.
Behaviorism
An approach to explaining behavior that assumes an inner dimension exists and causes behavior.
aka (Spiritual, psychic, subjective, feelings, Attitudes, processing)
Mentalism
- Hypothetical Construct
- Explanation Fiction
- Circular Reasoning
Mentalism Terminology
Behavioral, Applied, Technological, Conceptually Systematic, Analytical, Generality, Effective
7 DIMENSIONS OF ABA
The behavior chosen for study must be the behavior in need of improvement.
The behavior must be measurable; the precise and reliable measurement of behavior is just as critical in applied research as it is in basic research.
Behavioral
To meet this criterion, the researcher or practitioner must select behaviors to change that are socially significant for participants: social, language, academic, daily living, self-care, vocational, and/or recreation and leisure behaviors that improve the day-to-day life experience of the participants and/or affect their significant others (parents, teachers, peers, employers) in such a way that they behave more positively with and toward the participant.
Applied
Its operative procedures are identified and described with sufficient detail and clarity “such that a reader has a fair chance of replicating the application with the same results”.
Technological
The procedures for changing behavior and any interpretations of how or why those procedures were effective should be described in terms of the relevant principle(s) from which they were derived.
Conceptually Systematic
A behavior change has __________ if it lasts over time, appears in environments other than the one in which the intervention that initially produced it was implemented, and/or spreads to other behaviors not directly treated by the intervention.
Generality
Behavioral techniques must improve the behavior under investigation to a practical degree.
The extent to which changes in the target behaviors result in noticeable changes in the reasons those behaviors were selected for change originally.
Effective
Behaviorism attempts to explain all behavior, including public and private events such as thinking and feeling.
Radical behaviorism
Is a philosophical position that considers behavioral events that “cannot” be publicly observed to be outside the realm of science.
Methodological behaviorism
Demonstrated a functional relation between the manipulated events and a reliable change in some measurable dimension of the targeted behavior.
the experimenter must be able to control the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the behavior.
The ultimate issue is believability
Analytic
