Philosophical Assumptions Part 1
Determinism
Selectionism
Behavior is influenced by its outcomes
Behavioral
Targeting measurable and observable behavior
Generality
Behavior change should persist across time (temporal), settings (environment), people, and behaviors.
What is Description, Prediction & Control?
3 Levels of Scientific Understanding
Description: Deriving data from observed events
Prediction: Repeat observations show a relationship between 2 events & that relationship can be used to predict probability of 1 event occurring when another occurs.
Control: Established through experimentation. Manipulating the IV results in change of the DV. Change ONLY attributed to that IV.
Empiricism
Knowledge is built on objective observation and measurement (data).
Experimentation
Manipulation of the independent variable(s) to observe their effects on the dependent variable(s)
Applied
Aim to improve socially significant behaviors
Effective
Procedures should result in a practical and socially significant improvement.
Private events are ______
The private stimuli and covert responses that take place within someone & are only accessible to that individual
Parsimony
Ruling out the simplest explanation first
Replication
Repeating an experiment or procedure to confirm reliability & consistency of its findings.
Technological
Procedures must be defined clearly and in detail.
Replicable.
Analytic
Manipulated events (IVs) produce a reliable change on behaviors (DVs).
Functional relationship.
4 Branches of Behavior Analysis
Behaviorism: Examines the philosophical, theoretical, historical, & methodological issues within the science of behavior.
EAB: Research on basic processes & principles (mainly in labs).
Professional Practice: Encompasses various fields of work implementing ABA.
ABA: Science based off the use of learning principles to improve socially significant behavior.
Pragmatism
Practical solutions.
Relation between the setting (A), behavior (B) and the consequence (C).
Philosophical Doubt
Questioning own & other's work
maintain DOUBT
Conceptually Systematic
Derived from basic principles of ABA.
A BCBA implements a token economy to increase on-task behavior. When the program is later applied to a new classroom with similar results, the analyst demonstrates this key dimension of ABA.
Generality
What is Radical Behaviorism?
All human behavior, including private events, can be understood/explained as result of interactions with the environment.
During supervision, a BCBA observes that a trainee attributes a client’s increase in task completion to “finding their inner motivation.” The BCBA instead explains that behavior change occurred because reinforcement contingencies were systematically arranged to strengthen adaptive responding.
Which philosophical assumption best underlies the BCBA’s explanation?
Selectionism
This philosophical assumption maintains that all events, including human behavior, occur as a result of other events in the environment and are therefore lawful and predictable—not random or due to “free will.”
Determinism
A BCBA discovers that staff are using preference assessments inconsistently. After analyzing staff performance data, she revises the intervention and retrains them using BST to ensure the independent variable is responsible for behavior change.
Analytic
When designing an intervention, a BCBA avoids hypothetical constructs like “motivation” and instead measures observable interactions between behavior and environmental variables. This reflects which ABA dimension?
Behavioral
The dimensions of ABA are outlined in an article by _____, _______, & _______ in the first edition of ______ in the year, _______
Baer, Wolf, & Risley
JABA
1968