Chapter 1- Achieving Lasting Behavior Change Through Behavior Analysis Flashcards
(19 cards)
Experimental Analysis of Behavior
One directed toward producing a body of knowledge and understanding about how contingencies of reinforcement influence what people, and other living organisms, say and do.
Behavior
What living organisms do- including what and how they communicate, aside from its value or acceptability.
Behavior Analysis
The experimental investigation of variables that influence the behavior of any living organism.
Applied Research
Refer to choosing as our subject matter behavior that is important and immediately beneficial to individuals and/or society.
Basic Research
Generally, it takes place in a laboratory where responses can be investigated under tight experimental control.
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
An evidence-based method of examining and changing what people (and other living creatures) say and do.
5 Philosophical Concepts on which ABA is based
- Determinism
- Empiricism
- Parsimony
- Scientific Method
- Pragmatism
Overt
Directly observable
Covert
Within the individual
–> thinking, imagining…
Contiguity
Events happening simultaneously, or near simultaneously.
–> pressing a button and a door opening, touching a hot stove and getting burned
Methodological Behaviorism
Emphasized directly observing human and animal action to study behavior
- -> Much more objective route than structuralism
- -> John B. Watson took this route, as well as B.F. Skinner
Introspection
A careful set of observations made under controlled conditions by trained observers using a stringently (strict)-defined descriptive vocabulary.
–> Major tool in structural psychology.
Structuralism
Sought to understand the adult “mind” in terms of a set of simple, definable components.
–> Initially proposed by Wilhelm Wundt and promoted by Edward Titchener.
Deterministic Perspective
Asserts that, like other natural phenomena, human behavior obeys the laws of nature- that it is causally determined- by preceding events and/or consequences.
Pragmatism
A practical approach to problems in which truth is found in the process of verification.
–> Pragmatism and behaviorism go hand in hand
Scientific Method
A method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis or question is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis or question is empirically tested.
Parsimony
The simplest theory that fits the facts of a problem is the one that should be selected.
Empiricism
Derived from or guided by experience or experiment.
Determinism
Doctrine that acts of the will, occurrences in nature, or social or psychological phenomena are causally determined by preceding events or natural laws.
