SPE 563 philosophical foundations of ABA in education

Applied (component of ABA)

The intervention must be applied to socially significant behaviors requiring change

Behavior(al) (component of ABA)

Must be observable and measurable

Analytic (component of ABA)

Demonstrating a functional relation between the intervention and the behavior; demonstrating of control of the behavior by the intervention

Technical (component of ABA)

Intervention is described and clear and precise terms

Effective (component of ABA)

The intervention is demonstrated through visual analysis of data to have produced positive results

Generativity (component of ABA)

The behavior continues after withdrawal of intervention and occurs in other settings/situations

Conceptual (component of ABA)

Intervention must be based on the principles of behavior, in the extent available, empirical data, (literature/research)

Principles of behavior

The fundamental concepts that describe the relationships between behavior and environmental variables, guiding the understanding and study of behavior analysis.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA)

• Derived from operant conditioning theory

• Help to improve socially significant behaviors

• Use data to determine whether or not intervention used was successful

Behaviorism

Philosophy of science focused on observable and measurable phenomena

Radical behaviorism

Skinner’s “far reaching” form of behaviorism that included both “public” and “private” behaviors

Methodological behaviorism

A philosophical position which behavioral events that cannot be observed are not behaviors

Experimental analysis of behavior (EAB)

Founded by Skinner, a natural science focusing on studying operant behavior as a subject matter, using single subject experimental designs rather than group designs, to measure behavior as a dependent variable

What is GET-A-CAB

Generativity, Effective, Technological, Applied, Conceptual, Analytic, Behavioral

EAB vs ABA

ABA: focused in improving socially important behaviors for the learner (applied)

EAB: focused on science and scientific inquiry (lab-based)

Science

Seeks to understand behavior in order to better improve it

Interventions

Strategies/treatment used to improve behavior

Pragmatism

A question is only worth pursuing if the answer to it would change our knowledge of the world

Realism

The view of the world that assumes only the natural world, which presupposes an absolute truth.

aka: view of the world that assumes a real world to exist apart from our perceptions (Baum, 2017 p.288)

Mentalism

An assumption of an inner dimension as the explanation of behavior

Mentalistic

Any assumption of inner causes of behavior; inner causes which cannot be confirmed, observed or measured

Determinism

That the universe is a lawful in orderly place in which phenomenon occur in relation to other events, not in accidental fashion

(I.e. there is always cases of behavior: cause & effect)

Explanatory fiction

Another name for observable behavior, which implies an inner cause for the behavior (feelings)

Mentalistic versus behavioral explanations

Mentalistic is the cause within while behavioral explanations are related to observable and measurable, environmental variables

Private event

An event that can only be observed, and verified by the individual performing the behavior

Public event

An event observed by another person

Natural event

An event that is locatable in time and space in the natural world