Section A: Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Description

• Facts about an event or behavior “describing”

• Describing SwAr SIB behaviors to a novel therapist

Prediction

• Repeated observation to see which two events are correlated, “hypothesis”

• analyze 

• leave the door open SwAr will elope 

Control

• Experiment by manipulating an independent variable to try and control the behavior of interest 

• A functional relation between IV and ID 

• R + (iv) increase behavior (dv)

• My boyfriend always eats my fries, but if I add pepper, he won't touch them. So I add pepper, and he doesn't eat my fries

Selectionism

How behavior persists based on environmental factors (keeping or getting rid of)

Phylogenetic (Selectionism)

natural evolution/selection 

• Centuries of time 

Ontogenic (Selectionism)

selection by environment

• Each individual's learning history 

Cultural (Selectionism)

passed down from one person to the next (imitation/modeling

• Modeled bx, tribes

Determinism

things don't happen accidentally or for no reason (universe = law and order)

• The tree fell over by itself

Empiricism

studies are proven by objective observation and data collection 

Parsimony

the simplest explanation

• There is a simple explanation for why he doesn't text back, he was sleep 

Pragmatism

• making a practical choice based on my prior knowledge of the choice and how it would benefit the person the most  

• Treatment plans should be data-based and individualized. Don't use what worked in the past; evaluate the intervention based on the client 

Philosophical doubt

• question everything and look for better explanations 

  • Question the validity, doubt keeps you on your toes, and the mind moving 

Methodological Behaviorism

“If We Can’t See It, We Ignore It”

Radical behaviorism,

• “everything is Bx

• acknowledges private events as behavior but is not the cause

Mentalism

• “The Mind as Cause”

  • Hypothetical constructs

  • Explanatory factors

  • Circular reasonings

Circular reasonings

• Faulty logic. The effect is the cause, and the cause is the effect 

  • He misbehaves because of autism. He has autism, so he misbehaves

Explanatory factors

• A fictional variable used to explain behavior 

  • He was tired, so he couldn't complete his work

Hypothetical constructs

Unobserved but is “present” (ego)

Behaviorism

• Behavior is a result of an individual's environment 

  • You can take the person out of the hood, but you cannot take the hood out of the person 

Experimental analysis of behavior (EAB)

• Study behavior principles to use for an experiment ONLY 

  • Chem lab | research for the research paper in the lab, and lab only because you are not doing it at home 

  • Skinner and the dog because it's a controlled environment 

Applies behavior analysis (ABA)

• Applying behavior principles IRL

  • Studying the effects of punishment on your RBTs’s

Practice guided by behavior analysis 

• The interventions that result from behaviorism, EAB, and ABA 

  • Used IRL in other fields 

how many dimensions of aba are there?

7 (BATCAGE)

Applied

• Changes in a person's life are positive, socially significant, and meaningful. 

  • Being able to dress themselves independently  

  • What goals are we setting 

Analytic

• A functional relation is between what changes in the environment and the behavior we want to change. Are we controlling the behavior? 

  • A DRA Intervention controls the occurrences and non-occurrences of certain behaviors 

  • When we can control a behavior, we can change it 

  • Data driven 

Behavioral

• Must be observable and measurable 

  • You can observe someone's cleaning behavior and then measure the behavior

Conceptually systemic 

• Consistency in Interventions with behavior principles 

  • You want to teach motor imitation. You design the intervention so that it is consistent with basic behavior principles 

  • Aba intervention should be consistent with ABA principles

Effective

Practical improvement to Shaping the behavior to increase the skill over time

Generality

Being able to apply the skill in various environments

Technological

• Can it be replicated by others 

Identify the goals of behavior analysis as a science (I.e., description, prediction, control)

Explain the philosophical assumptions underlying the science of behavior analysis (e.g., selectionism, determinism, empiricism, parsimony, pragmatism)

What are the differences between the branches of behavior studies and applications