CHP 1 INTRO TO BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

Question 1

Behavior

Answer 1

An individual living organism’s activity, private or public, that may be influenced by internal or external stimulation

Question 2

Response

Answer 2

a single instance of behavior

Question 3

Goals of Behavioral Analysis

Answer 3

1. accurately predict behavior in order to perform adaptive behaviors
2. discover funcitonal variables that can be used to posivitely influence behavior

Question 4

Assumptions of Behavioral Analysis

Answer 4

1. Behavior is determined (has causes), not willed
2. The scientific way is a valid method to figure out the determinants of behavior

Question 5

The Scientific Method

Answer 5

1) Objective (no bias)
2) Quantitative
3) Systematic
4) Empirical (observable evidence is required)
5) predictions (predictions need the ability to be proven wrong)
6) Experimentation
7) Peer-review
8) Replication

Question 6

Determinants of behavior

Answer 6

Nature (biological variables) v Nurture (environmental events)

Question 7

Behavioral epigenetics

Answer 7

study of how nurture shapes nature

Question 8

Experimental analysis of behavior

Answer 8

research in a lab setting to expand our ability to predict and influence behavior

Question 9

Characteristics of Willed Actions

Answer 9

1) no “triggering event” (an event that triggers an action)
2) goal-directed

Question 10

Private behavior

Answer 10

activity unobservable by the general public

Question 11

Public behavior

Answer 11

activity that is observable by others

Question 12

Mentalistic explanation of behavior

Answer 12

other behaviors (usually private behaviors) are the cause of behavior

Question 13

4 problems with theory of mentalistic explanation of behavior

Answer 13

1) it explains the behavior with another behavior (not parsimonious)
2) spurious reason-making (we make up reasons when we don’t have an obvious reason)
3) most of our “involuntary” behavior actually IS voluntary
4) if behavior can’t be influenced, behavioral analysis is impossible

Question 14

Libet studies

Answer 14

showed that conscious willing happened AFTER the behavior

Question 15

Stimulus

Answer 15

things you can see, hear, smell, taste, or feel that elicit or evoke a response

Question 16

Falsifiable hypothesis

Answer 16

a hypothesis that can be proven wrong (so it can be used in the scientific method)

Question 17

Reification

Answer 17

treating an abstraction (heuristic) as though it was a thing (something REAL). problematic bc it uses circular logic (treats behavior as both cause and effect) and they aren’t functional variables that can be turned on and off to influence behavior

Question 18

Replication

Answer 18

therapists need to know that interventions will work. provides strong evidence that an outcome will happen more than 1 time