Unit 7 Flashcards
a scientific approach to the study of functional relations between behavior and the environment
behavior analysis
assumptions of science
determinism empiricism scientific manipulation (experimentation) parsimony philosophic doubt
all phenomena occur as a result of other events
determinism
objective observation with thorough description and quantification of the phenomena of interest
empiricism
scientific manipulation (experimentation)
events that are thought to affect the phenomena of interest are carefully and systematically manipulated to elucidate their effects.
requires that all, simple, logical explanations for the phenomena of interest be ruled out experimentally before more complex or abstract explanations are considered
parsimony
conclusions are derived from scientific manipulation are tentative. they may be modified or discarded when new facts or discoveries come to life
philosophic doubt (skepticism)
the philosophy of a science of behavior
behaviorism
a philosophical position that considers behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed to be outside the realm of science
methodological behaviorism
a thoroughgoing form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior, including private events such as thoughts and feelings, in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person (ontogeny) and the species (phylogeny)
radical behaviorism
a fictitious or hypothetical variable that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain and contributes nothing to a functional account or understanding of the phenomenon
explanatory fictions
types of explanatory fictions
mentalisms (circular explanations)
teleological explanations
future events, mistakenly, are used to explain behavior
teleological explanations
an approach to explain bx that assumes that a mental, or ‘inner,’ dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of bx, if not all.
mentalisms (explanatory fictions)
the science in which tactics derived from the principles of bx are applied systematically to improve socially significant bx and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for behavior change
ABA
characteristics of ABA (dimensions)
applied behavioral analytic technological conceptually systematic effective generality
investigates socially significant bx with immediate importance to the subjects
applied
entails precise measurement of the actual bx in need of improvement and documents that it was the subject’s bx that changed
behavioral
demonstrates experimental control over the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the bx – that is, if a functional relation is demonstrated
analytic
the written description of all procedures used in the study is sufficiently complete and detailed to enable others to replicate it.
technological
behavior change interventions are derived from basic principles of bx
conceptually systematic
improves bx sufficiently to produce practical results for the participant/client
effective
produces bx changes that last over time, appear in other environments, or spread to other bxs
generality
methodologies of EAB
direct, repeated measurement of bx
rate of responding as the basic datum
visual inference
within subject comparisons
work with clients who engage in a problem bx and/or who have atypical skill deficits
clinical behavior analysis
develop instructional materials and techniques that are used by teachers to provide more effective instruction to students
educational behavior analysis
work on staff performance, productivity, reducing absenteeism and turnover, and safety
organizational behavior management (OBM) or
performance management systems (PM)