Section A Philosophical Underpinning A1-A5

Question 1

Applied Behavior Analysis

Answer 1

A scientific approach for discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and for developing a technology of behavior changes that takes practical advantage of those discoveries

Question 2

3 levels of understanding

Answer 2

Description
Prediction
Control
DPC

Question 3

Description

Answer 3

Consists of a collection of facts about the observed events that can be quantified, classified, and examined for possible relations with other known facts

Knowledge obtained from descriptive studies often suggests possible hypotheses or questions for additional research

Question 4

Prediction

Answer 4

Repeated observations reveal that two events consistently covary with eachother

In the presence of one event, another event occurs or fails to occur with some specified probability

Question 5

Functional Relations

Answer 5

Exists when a well-controlled experiment demonstrates that a specific change in one event (DV) is reliably produced by specific manipulation of another event (IV) and that the change in the DV was unlikely to be the result of other extraneous factors

Question 6

Control

Answer 6

Ability to predict with a certain degree of confidence
The third and highest level of understanding
Enables functional relations

Question 7

Determinism

Answer 7

Science is based on this assumption

All scientists presume that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which all phenomena occur as the result of other events

Events do not just happen will-illy, they are related in systematic ways

Question 8

Experimentation

Answer 8

To investigate the possible existence of a functional relation, an experiment must be performed in which the factors suspected of having causal status are systematically controlled and manipulated while the effects on the event under study are carefully observed

Question 8

Experiment

Answer 8

controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest under two or more different conditiosn in which only one factor at a time (IV) differs from one condition to another

Question 9

Functional Analysis

Answer 9

Denotes demonstrations of functional relations between environemtnal variables and behavior

Question 10

Replication

Answer 10

Repeating of experiments

Primary method in which scientists determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings and discover their mistakes

Question 11

Parsimony

Answer 11

Requires that all simple, logical explanations for the phenomenon under investigations be ruled out, experimentally or conceptually before more complex or abstract explanations are considered

A fully parsimonious explanation consists only of those elements that are necessary and sufficient to explain the phenomenon at hand

Question 12

Philosophical Doubt

Answer 12

Requires the science to continually question the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact

Scientific knowledge must always be viewed as tentative

Having a healthy amount of skepticism

Question 13

Science

Answer 13

A systematic approach to understand natural phenomena

Relies on determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony and philosphic doubt

Question 14

What are the 2 kinds of behavior

Answer 14

Respondent and Operant

Question 15

Respondent Behavior

Answer 15

Reflexive, involuntary behaviors

Respondents are elicited or brought out by stimuli that immediately precede them

The antecedent stimulus and the response it elicits form a functional unit called a reflex

Question 16

Operant Behavior

Answer 16

These behaviors are not elicited by preceding stimuli but instead are influenced by stimulus changes that have followed the behavior in the past

Learned behvavior

Question 17

Mentalism

Answer 17

Approach to the study of behavior that assumes that a mental or inner dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension

Mentalism assumes that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior

Question 18

Hypothetical Constructs

Answer 18

Theoretical terms that refer to a possibly existing but at the moment unobserved process or entity

Question 19

Examples of hypothetical constructs

Answer 19

Free will, readiness, language acquisition devices

Question 20

Explanatory Fiction

Answer 20

A fictitious variable that often is simply another name for the observed behavior that contributes nothing to an understanding of the variables responsible for developing or maintaining the behaviorP

Question 21

Pragmatism

Answer 21

Assessing how useful an explanation is by looking at whether it produces useful results

Question 22

Methodological Behaiorism

Answer 22

Behaviorists either denied existience of inner variables or considered them outside the realm of a scientific account

Question 23

Skinner’s Behaviorism Assumptions

Answer 23

Private events such as thoughts and feelings are behavior

Beahvior that takes place within the ski is distinguished from other public behavior only by its inaccessibility

Private behavior is influenced by the same kinds of variables as publicly accessible behavior

Question 24

Radical behaviorism

Answer 24

Includes and seeks to understand ALL human behavior

Radical behaviorists consider private events such as thinking or sensing the stimuli produced by a damged tooth to be no different from public events such as an oral reading

Question 25

7 Characteristics of ABA

Answer 25

Applied
Behavioral
Analytic
Technological
Conceptually Systematic
Effective
Generality

Question 26

Applied

Answer 26

Effecting improvements in behaviors that enhance and improve people’s lives

Practitioners must select behaviors to change that are socially significant

Question 27

Behavioral

Answer 27

The behavior chosen for study must be the behavior in need for improvement

The behavior must be measurable

When changes in behavior are observed during an intervention, it is necessary to ask whose behahvior has changed

Question 28

Analytic

Answer 28

When the experimenter has demonstrated a functional relation between the manipulated events and a reliable change in some measurable dimension of the targeted behavior

Question 29

Technological

Answer 29

Operative procedures are identified and described with sufficient detail and clarity

Can an outsider understand it?

Question 30

Conceptually Systematic

Answer 30

The procedures for changing behavior and any interpretations of how or why those procedures were effective should be described in terms of the relevant principles from which they were derived

Relating back to ABA

Question 31

Effective

Answer 31

Must improve the behavior under investigation to a practical degree

Question 32

Generality

Answer 32

If a behavior lasts over time, appears in environments other than the one in which the intervention that initally produced it was implemented and/or spreads to other behaviors not directly treated by the intervention

Question 33

4 domains of ABA

Answer 33

Radical behaviorism
EAB
ABA
Professional Practice