Section A Flashcards
What is the science Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)? (Definition & Focus)
Evidence-based applied science that uses learning principles to improve socially important behavior
- Focuses on assessing environmental influences, assessment-based interventions, and data-based decision-making
What is science?
A systematic organized approach to understanding natural phenomenon through collecting knowledge and understanding
Purposes of science
To find the and understand the universal Truths on 3 scientific levels (DPC), which are independent of any group’s beliefs/opinions
The purpose of the science of ABA is:
To understand socially significant behaviors that we aim to change
The 3 levels of scientific understanding are:
- Description
- Prediction
- Control
Level Scientific of Understanding: Control
- 3rd and highest level of understanding
- AKA: Causation
- A functional r.ship is established when science confirms what was predicted
- Event 1 (IV), results in change of another event (DV) and this event can only be attributed to the IV (Event 1)
Level Scientific of Understanding: Description
- 1st level of understanding
- Facts that are observable and measurable, which help us test possible r.ships and identify hypothesis
Level Scientific of Understanding: Prediction
- 2nd level of understanding
- Repeated observations that show a consistent correlation between 2 or more events which allow us to make scientific guesses about the probability of 1 event occurring when the other event occurs.
- Correlation does not equal causation! (Prediction does not equal control)
Prediction AKAs
Correlation and Covariation
What are the 5 Philosophical Assumptions?
- Determinism
- Empiricism
- Parsimony
- Pragmaticism
- Selectionism
- DEPPS
Determinism
The world is orderly, predictable, and lawful.
Empiricism
- A philosophical assumption
- The objective observation and measurement upon which knowledge is built
- Empiricism = Evidence = Data = Facts
Parsimony
- A philosophical assumption
- Rule out the most simple and logical explanation that requires the fewest assumptions, before considering more complex explanations
Pragmatism
- A philosophical assumption
- How things come to be
- A practical approach to problems in which truth is found in the process of verification
- A probabilistic AB because of C philosophy
Selectionism
- Philosophical assumption
- Selection by consequences
- Positive consequences survive and produce more complex repertoires
- Ontogeny
What are the 3 terms formerly associated with the Philosophical Assumptions?
- Philosophical Doubt
- Replication
- Experimentation
PRE(viously)