PS558 - Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

Behaviorism

The philosophy of a science of behavior; there are various forms of behaviorism.

Radical Behaviorism (A type of behaviorism)

A form of behaviorism that attends to understanding 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).

Methodological Behaviorism (A type of behaviorism)

A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the round of science.

Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB)

A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by B. F. Skinner; methodological features include rate of response as a basis dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response glasses, within subject experimental comparisons instead of great designs, Visual analysis of graph data instead of statistical inference, and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables and environment over formal theory testing.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variable responsible for the improvement in behavior.

Science (of Behavior)

A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomenon (as evidenced by description, prediction, and control) that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumptions, empiricism as its primary role, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophic doubts as it’s guiding conscience.

Experiment

A carefully controlled comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (The dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another.

Functional relation

A verbal statement summarizing the results of an experiment that describes the occurrence of the phenomenon under study as a function of the operation of one or more specified and controlled variables in the experiment in which a specific change in one event (the dependent variable) can be produced by manipulating another event (the independent variable) seeing that the change in the dependent variable was unlikely the result of other factors.

Mentalism

An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that a mental, or “inner” dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that phenomenon in this dimension either directly causes or at least mediates some form of behavior, if not all.

Explanatory fiction

A fictitious or hypothetical variable that often takes the form of another name for the observed phenomenon, claims to explain, and contributes nothing to a functional account for understanding of the phenomenon as explanations for behavior. i.e.

Hypothetical construct

A presumed but unobserved process or entity. (For example, ego, memories, thoughts)

Description (Three levels of scientific understanding)

Collection of facts about observed events that can be quantified, classified, & examined for possible relations with other known facts which may suggest a hypothesis

Prediction (Three levels of scientific understanding)

Two events regularly occurring at the same time, based on repeated observation suggesting a correlation between events.

Control (Three levels of scientific understanding)

The highest level of scientific understanding where a functional relation (causation) between the dependent and independent variable is derived.

Determinism (The Six Attitudes/ Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior)

The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in an accidental fashion.

Empiricism (The Six Attitudes/ Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior)

The objective observation of the phenomena of interest: Objective observations are independent of the “individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist. Results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone observation and do not depend on this subjective belief of the individual scientist” (Zuriff, 1985, p.9 as cited by Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007).

Experimentation (The Six Attitudes/ Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior)

A basic strategy of all science, where an experiment is a carefully conducted comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another"

Replication (The Six Attitudes/ Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior)

Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity, or repeating whole experiments to determine the generality of findings of previous experiments to other subjects, settings, or behaviors.

Parsimony (The Six Attitudes/ Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior)

The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations.

Philosophic doubt (The Six Attitudes/ Philosophical Assumptions of Behavior)

An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned.

The 6 attitudes/ Philosophical assumptions of behavior

Determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony, philosophic doubt

The Seven Dimensions of Behavior (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968)

Behavioral, applied, technological, conceptually systematic, analytical, generality, effective

Behavioral (7 dimensions of behavior)

Precise measurement of the actual behavior in need of improvement & documents that it was the participant’s behavior that changed.

applied (7 dimensions of behavior)

Investigates socially significant behaviors with immediate importance to the participants.

Technological (7 dimensions of behavior)

Written description of all procedures in the study is sufficiently complete and detailed to enable others to replicate it, in which operative procedures are identified and described in detail & clarity

Conceptually systematic (7 dimensions of behavior)

Behavior change interventions are derived from basic principles of behavior.

Analytical (7 dimensions of behavior)

Analytical - Demonstrates experimental control over the occurrence and non- occurrence of the behavior (a functional relation is demonstrated).

Generality (7 dimensions of behavior)

Produces behavior changes that last over time, appears in other environments (other than the one in which intervention was implemented), or spreads to other behaviors (those not directly treated by the intervention).

Effective (7 dimensions of behavior)

Improves behavior sufficiently to produce practical results for the participant(s).