Behavior Analysis and Behavior Modification: An Introduction
Richard Malott, Mary Tillema, Sigrid Glenn
Language: English
Pages: 499
ISBN: 2:00289584
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Just as the practice of medicine rests on the sciences of biology and chemistry, the practice of behavior modification rests on the science of behavior analysis. And so, we've divided this book into two sections, the science of behavior analysis, followed by the practice of behavior modification. Behavior analysis involved the basic principles of behavior to understand people. Behavior modification involves the use of those principles to help people.
The first section, behavior analysis, introduces the basic principles of behavior so you will be better able to study behavior modification in the second section, so you will be better able to understand the practice in terms of the science.
Just as our love of art rests on its elegance, its perfect composition - all parts fitting into place - so our appreciation of science rests on its elegance, its perfect structure - all facts explained. And behavior analysis is now growing into that sort of mature science, as it trys to explain more and more of our psychological world. So we get much the same thrill when we study a great work of art as an elegant composition.
With only a few basic concepts and principles, an elegant science can explain its many facets ; and with only a few basic concepts and principles, behavior analysis can also explain its many facets. The same basic concepts and principles explain:
-why people act strangely,
-why people act basely,
-why people act magnificently,
-why we all act as we do in our everyday lives.
Just as we stopped throwing vengeful stones when people didn't act as they should, now we can stop pointing accusing fingers when people don't act as they should, whether those people are ourselves or others. For now we know many of the causes of behavior and so, can be tolerant of the person while dealing with the causes of the problem. As Steven Vincent Binet has suggested, we can "hate the sin, but love the sinner."
So we value the science of behavior analysis because it supports the practice of behavior modification, because it explains our psychological universe with elegant simplicity, and because it helps us live with ourselves and with others. Behavior analysis thrills and excites us, we hope it will thrill and excite you too.
too much candy her mother may take the candy away from her . Eating candy (act) causes her mother to remove (contingency relationship) the candy (reward), and this is a punishment procedure . The outcomes of both these procedures are the same - they both make acts less likely . But the operations themselves differ. An act fails to produce its usual reward in the extinction procedure, while an act causes a reward to be removed in the punishment procedure . Let's look at another instance of both
too much candy her mother may take the candy away from her . Eating candy (act) causes her mother to remove (contingency relationship) the candy (reward), and this is a punishment procedure . The outcomes of both these procedures are the same - they both make acts less likely . But the operations themselves differ. An act fails to produce its usual reward in the extinction procedure, while an act causes a reward to be removed in the punishment procedure . Let's look at another instance of both
that way in the future then . But you didn't like the way I let them 128 SECTION 1 : BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS interrupt each other? OK, I'll try to keep things under better control the next time . You may think that positive feedback is the same thing as a learned reward and that corrective feedback is the same thing as a learned aversive . But that's not quite it. Feedback statements may be rewarding or aversive, but feedback differs from a simple reward or aversive in one major way : feedback
smile back at you, so it's both a response and a cue . Raising your hand in one of your classes (a response) will often cause (cue) the teacher's act of calling on you, so it's both a response and a cue . Your verbal behavior very often serves as both a response and a cue, probably more often than your nonverbal behavior . We already saw that the things you say can come to cue acts (your own and others) when words get paired with behavioral procedures . People will often try something new if you
overslept, but he also has to have a strong history for making and following rules in order to change his behavior . He'll have to be able to make a rule based on his past actions : "In order to stop goofing up, I'll have to get to bed on time ." And then he'll have to follow that rule . Now let's go back to why such self-given rules control some people and not others . We've already said it's because of differing behav- CHAPTER 8 : RULE-CONTROLLED BEHAVIOR 181 ioral histories . Some people