Study guide · Area A

Behaviorism and Philosophical Foundations

8 of the exam's 175 scored questions (5%) · 5 tasks

This area covers the philosophy that behavior analysis rests on: the goals of the science, the assumptions every scientist in the field shares, radical behaviorism as a way of explaining behavior, the four domains of the discipline and the defining dimensions of applied work. The exam rarely asks for a recited definition; it describes a statement, a study or a practitioner's reasoning and asks which assumption, domain or dimension it shows, or which explanation is mentalistic or circular.

A study feature written by ExamDragon, not part of the real exam. Each heading is one of the BACB's tasks for this content area (5 of them), in the BACB's words.

A.1Identify the goals of behavior analysis as a science (i.e., description, prediction, control).

Science seeks three levels of understanding, each building on the last: description, prediction and control.
Description is systematic observation that can be quantified and classified, such as recording how often and when a behavior occurs; it yields facts and hypotheses but no statements of relation.
Prediction is possible when repeated observation shows that two events covary (a correlation): when one occurs, the other reliably occurs too. Prediction does not show that one event causes the other.
Control is the highest level: an experiment shows a functional relation when a change in behavior reliably follows the deliberate manipulation of an environmental variable while other variables are held constant.
Applied behavior analysis aims at control because it is the only level that identifies the variables a practitioner can change to help a person, which is why functional analysis and experimental designs sit at its center.

In practice: A behavior analyst first records that a student's calling out happens mostly during independent seatwork (description), then notices that it nearly always follows a period with no teacher contact (prediction). Only when she alternates conditions of frequent and rare teacher attention and the calling out rises and falls with them has she shown control.

Where questions turn: A strong correlation between an event and a behavior is prediction, not control; only an experimental manipulation that changes the behavior demonstrates a functional relation.

Practise A.1

A.2Explain the philosophical assumptions underlying the science of behavior analysis (e.g., selectionism, determinism, empiricism, parsimony, pragmatism).

Determinism: the universe, behavior included, is lawful and orderly; events occur as the result of other events, so behavior has causes that can be discovered rather than arising from free will or chance.
Empiricism: knowledge comes from objective observation and measurement of the phenomenon, not from opinion, authority, intuition or logic alone.
Selectionism: behavior, like species, is shaped by its consequences. Skinner described selection at three levels: phylogenic (the species), ontogenic (the individual's lifetime, through operant learning) and cultural (practices passed among members of a group).
Parsimony: when several explanations fit the data, prefer the simplest one, and rule out simple, logical environmental explanations before turning to more complex or abstract ones.
Pragmatism: the truth of a statement is judged by how well it works, that is, by whether acting on it produces successful prediction and control.
The field also names experimentation (the manipulation of variables as the basic strategy), replication (repeating experiments to determine the reliability of findings) and philosophic doubt (holding every finding, one's own included, open to revision by new data).

In practice: A teacher says a child bites because he is aggressive by nature. The behavior analyst first checks simple environmental accounts (biting may follow demands, or produce the removal of work), measures the biting directly and tests the account. This reflects determinism (the biting has causes), empiricism (measure, do not assume) and parsimony (rule out the simple environmental explanation first).

Where questions turn: Parsimony means choosing the simplest explanation that fits the data, not the simplest intervention or the cheapest one; and pragmatism judges an idea by whether it works in practice, not by whether it sounds reasonable.

Practise A.2

A.3Explain behavior from the perspective of radical behaviorism.

Radical behaviorism is Skinner's philosophy of the science: it treats everything a person does, thinking and feeling included, as behavior that is subject to the same environmental variables and principles as observable behavior.
Private events (thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations) are real behavior or stimuli that occur within the skin; they are not excluded, but they are not given special causal status or treated as made of a different substance.
Radical behaviorism rejects mentalism, the practice of explaining behavior by an inner, hypothetical dimension such as the will, a drive, a personality trait or a cognitive process.
An explanatory fiction is a label that names behavior and is then offered as its cause; it leads to circular reasoning (he hits because he is aggressive; we know he is aggressive because he hits).
The explanation of behavior is sought in its interaction with the environment: the person's history of reinforcement and punishment (ontogeny), the species' history (phylogeny), cultural contingencies and the current antecedents and consequences.
Radical behaviorism differs from methodological behaviorism, which accepts private events as existing but excludes them from scientific study because they cannot be observed publicly.

In practice: A parent says her son refuses homework because he is anxious. A radical behaviorist does not dismiss the anxiety: the boy's reports and bodily responses are behavior too. But instead of treating anxiety as the inner cause, the analyst asks which environmental events (difficult tasks, a history of escape after protest) control both the refusal and the reported feelings.

Where questions turn: Radical behaviorism does not deny private events or leave them out of the analysis; excluding them from scientific study is the position of methodological behaviorism.

Practise A.3

A.4Distinguish among behaviorism, the experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, and professional practice guided by the science of behavior analysis.

Behaviorism is the philosophy of the science of behavior: its assumptions, values and ways of explaining behavior (radical behaviorism is its most influential form).
The experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) is the basic research branch: laboratory studies, often with nonhuman subjects, that discover fundamental principles such as schedules of reinforcement, without requiring that the behavior studied be socially important.
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the applied research branch: it applies those principles to improve socially significant behavior and uses experimentation to identify the variables responsible for the change.
Professional practice guided by the science of behavior analysis is the delivery of behavior-analytic services to clients (assessment, intervention, supervision); it draws on ABA research but its aim is to help a particular person, not to produce new knowledge.
The four domains are interdependent: philosophy guides the questions, basic research supplies principles, applied research tests their use on important problems, and practice brings the results to clients and raises new questions.

In practice: A study of how pigeons respond on fixed-interval schedules is EAB. A study that experimentally shows that an interval-based schedule reduces a student's disruptive behavior in class is ABA. A behavior analyst who uses that published procedure for a client in a school, with ongoing data but no experimental design, is engaged in professional practice guided by the science.

Where questions turn: Using behavior-analytic procedures with a client is practice, not applied behavior analysis research; ABA as a research domain requires an analysis that demonstrates the variables responsible for change.

Practise A.4

A.5Identify and describe dimensions of applied behavior analysis.

Baer, Wolf and Risley (1968) defined seven dimensions of applied behavior analysis, still used to judge whether work qualifies: applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, effective and generality.
Applied: the behaviors chosen are socially significant for the participant, improving their daily life. Behavioral: the target is behavior itself, observable and measurable, and the change measured is a change in what the person does (not in what they say they do, unless saying is the target).
Analytic: the analyst demonstrates experimental control, a functional relation between the intervention and the behavior change. Technological: procedures are described completely and precisely enough to be replicated by a trained reader.
Conceptually systematic: procedures are described and explained in terms of the basic principles from which they derive (for example, a token system described as conditioned reinforcement), not as a bag of tricks.
Effective: the change is large enough to make a practical, socially meaningful difference, not merely statistically significant. Generality: the change lasts over time, appears in other environments or spreads to other behaviors.
Later authors added further characteristics (for example, accountable, public, doable, empowering and optimistic, in Heward's account), but the seven 1968 dimensions are the standard list.

In practice: A report on teaching a man to ride a bus describes every prompt and its fading so another team could repeat it (technological), names them as stimulus and response prompts faded by delay (conceptually systematic), and uses a multiple-baseline design across bus routes (analytic). When the man still rides independently six months later on a new route, the work also shows generality.

Where questions turn: Technological means the procedures are described in replicable detail, not that technology or devices are used; and effective means a practically meaningful change, not a statistically significant one.

Practise A.5

Key terms

Functional relation: A demonstration that a specific change in behavior reliably follows the manipulation of an independent variable, with other variables controlled.
Determinism: The assumption that behavior is lawful and caused by other events that can be identified.
Empiricism: The practice of basing knowledge on objective observation and measurement.
Parsimony: Preferring the simplest explanation consistent with the data before more complex ones.
Pragmatism: Judging the truth of a statement by its usefulness in prediction and control.
Selectionism: The view that behavior is selected by its consequences at the phylogenic, ontogenic and cultural levels.
Philosophic doubt: Continually questioning the truthfulness of what is regarded as fact, one's own findings included.
Mentalism: Explaining behavior by hypothetical inner states or processes in a mental dimension.
Explanatory fiction: A label for behavior offered as its cause, producing circular reasoning.
Private events: Behavior and stimuli accessible only to the person within the skin, explained by the same principles as public behavior.
Experimental analysis of behavior: The basic research branch that discovers fundamental principles of behavior.
Seven dimensions of ABA: Applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, effective and generality (Baer, Wolf and Risley, 1968).

After this guide: Given a statement, study or practitioner's explanation, you should be able to name the goal of science it reaches, the philosophical assumption or domain it reflects, whether it is mentalistic or circular, and which dimensions of ABA it meets or fails.

Practise area A