Intro to behavior
2 main questions in aba
Why do people behave ?(What determines behavior)
How do we change behavior... reliably?
Core assumption 1
Behavior is lawful
Occurs for a reason
-Discover the reasons and describe them as accuratetly as possible
Materialism
Behavior and its causes are real life physical events that can be observed, measured and manipulated.
Ivan Pavlov
Russian psychologist
respondent/classic conditioning
- eg: dog salivating
Target behavior
Behavior that can be changed or modified
Behaviorism
Behavior can best be studied by examining its observable features.
Behavior is determined, in large part, but observable features in the environment.
Core assumption 2
Prediction and control
Prediction: Specifying the occurrence of some event based on ones past experience with similar events.
Control: Arranging the conditions responsible for producing some event. understand the conditions responsible for causing the behavior and be able to explain it.
Determinism
Behavior is determined by a combination of genetic/ biological and environmental factors
eg: selection
Edward Thorndike
"Law of effect": a behavior that produces a favorable effect on environment is more likely to be repeated.
-Known for cat experiments with puzzles.
Behavioral excess
Undesirable behavior targeted for a decrease along some dimension
What is behavior analysis?
a comprehensive experimental approach to the study of the behavior of organisms.
Behavior is a SUBJECT MATTER of psychology 3
Behavior not as an index of something else but as the and on its own terms subject of study in its own right
Introverted example: she's introverted->how does she know she's introverted-> because she doesn't like going out->how do you know she doesn't like going out?-> she's introverted
phylogenetic
evolution of humans
John Watson
founder of behaviorism
focus: control and prediction behavior
Study: "Little Albert" where she studied generalization of conditioned fear.
Behavioral Deficit
desirable behavior targeted for an increase along some dimension
What is behavior?
An individual living organism's activity, public, or private, which may be influenced by external or internal stimulation.
The causes of behavior are GENETIC/BIOLOGICAL and Environmental 4
-phylogenetic history
-ontogenetic history
-current context of behavior( proceeding stimuli, consequences, deprivation/satiation, etc..)
Ontogenetic
Evolution of self throughout our own lifespan.
BF Skinner
Distinguished between respondent and operant learning.
worked on pigeons and rats
- Rejected internal explanations of an organism's behavior.( looked at environmental & how it affected behavior and learning)
conceptually systematic
tied to their underlying principles
What are characteristics of behavior?
-Posses physical dimensions that can be measured.
-Has physical and social impacts on the environment(sometimes not obvious) or impacts the person who engages in behavior.
-May be Overt (public/observable), or covert (private/ non observable).
7 dimensions of ABA
Applied, behavioral, analytical, technological, conceptually systematic, effective, generalizable
-principles to improve behavior with evaluation of observable changes are function of the procedure applied.
Behavior
Anything the organism does other than physiological processes.
William of Ockham
"what can be done with fewer assumptions is done in vain with more"
principle of parsimony
effective
clinically significant behavior change