LECTURE 1 THE ABC’S OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS

Behavior Analysis

Lecture structure

Tuesday – lectureWednesday - exercises and tests

Behavior Analysis

BA is a young field – about 50 years oldBecause its so young people are still arguing

about its definitionWe are going to go with a simple and short

definition

Behavior Analysis is the science of behavior change.

Behavior Analysis

In other words, the main focus of behavior analysis is how and why behavior changes.

However there is a more conventional definition that most behavior analysts would find satisfactory

Behavior analysis is the study of functional relations between behavior and environmental

events

Behavior Analysis

This, more difficult definition, requires that you understand 3 concepts;

Functional relations,

Behavior

Environmental events

Functional Relations

A functional relation is the tendency of one event to vary in a regular way with one or

more other events

The simplest sort of functional relation is ‘if x, then y’. This means that if event X occurs, then event Y occurs. The two events are connected so that you can reliably predict that whenever X occurs, Y occurs.

For example, if I flick the light switch off, the rooms becomes dark

Science can be defined as the search for functional relations among events. Our job, as behavioral psychologists, is to spot the functional relations between peoples behavior and the environment.

But what do we mean by behavior?

Behavior

Someone might suggest that behavior is ‘what people do’

However, our definition is more precise that this;

Behavior: anything a person does that can be observed

Why? If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is around, does it make a

sound when it hits the floor?

Psychology is a science.This means, if we cant observe it then it doesn't’t

exist.

Behavior

What about thinking and feeling? These are behaviors, but they are different because they can

only be observed by the person experiencing them. This distinction between actions and

thoughts/feelings is important For example: You can walk across the room and drink some

beer, or you can think about walking across the room and drinking some beer

Both are behaviors, but what's the major difference? In one case, you drink the beer

Thoughts and feeling don’t have the same effect on the environment that actions have.

Actions usually have measurable effects, making it possible for other people to observe them. Thoughts and feelings don’t.

Behavior

For this reason we have two definitions of behavior:

Overt Behavior: behavior that can be observed by someone other than the person

performing it

Covert Behavior: behavior than can be observed only by the person performing it.

Behavior

There is also another way of classifying behavior that divides into two categories:

Respondent behavior

Operant behavior

Respondent behavior

Respondent behavior is behavior that is most readily influenced by events that precede it

It can also be referred to as reflexive behavior.Respondent behavior is the kind of behavior people usually describe as involuntary or reflexiveIt is behavior that is preceded and readily produced by a specific environmental eventExamples include:

The flow of acids into the stomach in response to food Blinking an eye when a speck of dust hits it Emotions such as anger fear and love may cause

physiological responses i.e. heart rate, breathing patterns, sweating

Operant behavior

Operant behavior is behavior that is readily influenced by events that follow it

Example; if you picked up a hot iron, then the behavior of picking up the hot iron and burning yourself will affect the probability of repeating that behavior in future.

Operant behavior includes the majority of behaviors that we can think of

Behaviorists often talk about the respondent / operant distinction by saying that respondent behavior is elicited (no choice), whereas operant behavior is emitted (choice)

Review

Overt Covert

Operant

Respondent

Behavior

Every persons behavioral repertoire is composed of some combination of these 4 types of behavior

A behavioral repertoire is all the things an individual is capable of doing at any given moment

Anything you can do is part of your behavioral repertoire. Something you used to do but don’t anymore is no longer part of your behavioral repertoire.

The concept is important because much of BA is about changing behavioral repertoires.

Environmental events

Remember our definition of BA

Behavior analysis is the study of functional relations between behavior and environmental events

In behavior analysis were looking for informative relationship between our behavior (respondent, operant, covert and overt) and environmental events.

What is an environmental event?

Environmental events

An environmental event refers to any event in a persons environment that can be observed

Environmental events are the kinds of things we usually refer to as experienceBut remember here that were talking about physical events, that have some sort of measurable effectBehavior analysts are interested in the effects of events in the external environment on behavior.

Environmental events

As human beings we are great at spotting and describing environmental events, in many different ways; colour, shape, size brightness etc

However one feature of experience deserves comment here; the temporal relation of the event to the behavior

The word temporal means having to do with time, so were talking about the relationship, in time, of environmental events to behavior.

Environmental events

Most environmental events can be thought of as falling into two categories, depending on their temporal relation to the behavior:

Antecedents are environmental events that occur before a behavior

Consequences are environmental events that occur after the behavior

The ABC’s of behavior analysis

Antecedents - Behavior - Consequences

Behavior analysis is the search for functional relationships among behavior, and its antecedents and consequences Certain antecedents will make a behavior more likely

to occur, and other may make it less likely to occur And certain consequences may make the behavior

they follow likely to occur again, whilst others may make the behavior unlikely to be repeated

But more about this later!

Learning history

The effects of antecedents and consequences are cumulative

In other words, all of our past environmental events (experience) will influence a persons present behavior

This means that we each bring our own unique learning history to every situation

Learning history: all the environmental events (antecedents and consequences) that have

affected the persons behavior up to the present

Applied behavior analysis

So those are the basics of behavior analysis, however were much more interested in a field called Applied Behavior AnalysisApplied behavior analysis is the attempt to solve

behavior problems by providing antecedents and/or consequences that change behavior

In other words; BA is concerned with understanding how environmental

events change behavior; APA is concerned with using environmental events to change

behavior is desirable ways

Our focus in this course on APA; solving behavior problems by altering antecedents and consequences

Behavior problems

Some problems are adaptive Isn't is good to be scared of snakes? They can kill us right?

Behavior becomes problematic when the fear impacts on a persons life, and their actions

It can be difficult to engage in a task when your thinking about an unpleasant experience

Lets look at some common problems and see if we can find solutions to them

Behavior problems

Problem Solution

Afraid of snakes

Obsessed by bad thoughts

Too shy

Cant read

Behavior problems

Much of the time, behavior problems occur either because a behavior is occurring too much, or because a behavior is occurring not enough

The job of the behavior analyst is to change the frequency of behavior

As an example, the chief difference between a good student and a poor student has to do with how often each performs desirable and undesirable acts

The medical model

Behaviorists maintain that troublesome behavior is the problem, and that altering the frequency of the behavior will solve the problem

The medical model, on the other hand, views the problem as being beneath the surface.Medical model: the view that behavior problems

are merely the symptoms of an underlying disorder

This model is more or less accepted by most psychologists, teachers social workers and many other that deal with behavior problems

Problems with the medical model

Its definitions are measured by frequency of behavior, rather than underlying causes For example, if you take away inappropriate speech

from an autistic person then you have literately made them less autistic

It promotes labeling of people with psychological disorders which then affects the way they feel about themselves, as well as the way other people feel about them

BA focuses on observable behavior, rather than a mysterious, comorbid and unseen disorders

However

Behavior analysis is difficultSolving behavior problems is harder than it looks.

Always remember Daniels Dictum here;

Daniels Dictum: if you think this stuff is easy, you're doing it wrong!

As you learn about reinforcement and extinction and shaping and all the rest of it you will think its easy. It will sound easy.

However, this course merely prepares you for greater training in BA, rather than the ability solve complex behavior problems in the real world.

Flash cards

Lets go over some flash cards!

You will be tested on these every few weeks. This will be 25% of your final grade!

Flash cards

Behaviour Analysis: study of functional relations between environmental events and behavior science of behavior change

Functional relation: tendency of one event to vary in a regular way with one or more other

events Behavior:

anything a person does that can be observed Overt behavior:

behavior that can be observed by someone other than the person performing it

Covert behavior: behavior that can be observed only by the person performing it

Respondent behavior: behavior that is most readily influenced by events that preced it; reflexive

behavior Operant behavior:

behavior that is readily influenced by events that follow it

Flash cards

Behavioural repertoire: all things an individual is capable of doing at any

given momentEnvironmental event:

any event in a person's environment that can be observed

Antecedents: environmental events that occur before a behavior

Consequences: environmental events that occur after a behavior

Learning history: environmental events (antecedents and

consequences) that have affected a person's behavior up to the present

Flash cards

Applied behavior analysis: the attempt to solve behavior problems by

providing antecedents and/or consequences that change behavior

Medical model: view that behavior problems are merely

symptoms of an underlying psychological disorderSymptom substitution:

idea that if a behavior problem is solved without resolving the underlying psychological disorder, another behavior problem will take its place

Daniel's dictum: if you think this stuff is easy; you're doing it

wrong