Section A Philosophical Underpinning A1-A5 Flashcards
Applied Behavior Analysis
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
3 levels of understanding
Description
Prediction
Control
DPC
Description
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
Prediction
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
Functional Relations
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
Control
Ability to predict with a certain degree of confidence
The third and highest level of understanding
Enables functional relations
Determinism
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
Experimentation
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
Experiment
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
Functional Analysis
Denotes demonstrations of functional relations between environemtnal variables and behavior
Replication
Repeating of experiments
Primary method in which scientists determine the reliability and usefulness of their findings and discover their mistakes
Parsimony
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
Philosophical Doubt
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
Science
A systematic approach to understand natural phenomena
Relies on determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony and philosphic doubt
What are the 2 kinds of behavior
Respondent and Operant
Respondent Behavior
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
Operant Behavior
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
Mentalism
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
Hypothetical Constructs
Theoretical terms that refer to a possibly existing but at the moment unobserved process or entity
Examples of hypothetical constructs
Free will, readiness, language acquisition devices
Explanatory Fiction
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
Pragmatism
Assessing how useful an explanation is by looking at whether it produces useful results
Methodological Behaiorism
Behaviorists either denied existience of inner variables or considered them outside the realm of a scientific account
Skinner’s Behaviorism Assumptions
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
Radical behaviorism
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
7 Characteristics of ABA
Applied
Behavioral
Analytic
Technological
Conceptually Systematic
Effective
Generality
Applied
Effecting improvements in behaviors that enhance and improve people’s lives
Practitioners must select behaviors to change that are socially significant
Behavioral
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
Analytic
When the experimenter has demonstrated a functional relation between the manipulated events and a reliable change in some measurable dimension of the targeted behavior
Technological
Operative procedures are identified and described with sufficient detail and clarity
Can an outsider understand it?
Conceptually Systematic
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
Effective
Must improve the behavior under investigation to a practical degree
Generality
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
4 domains of ABA
Radical behaviorism
EAB
ABA
Professional Practice
