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| applied behavior analysis (ABA) |
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Definition
| The science in which tactics derived from the principles of behavior are applied to improve socially significant behavior and experimentation is used to identify the variables responsible for the improvement of behavior. |
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| The philosophy of a science of behavior; there are various forms of behaviorism. |
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| The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in a willy-nilly, accidental fashion. |
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| The objective observation of the phenomena of interest; objective observations are "independent of the individual prejudices, tastes, and private opinions of the scientist ... results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone's observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist." |
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| A carefully controlled comparison of some measurement of the phenomenon of interest under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time differs from one condition to the other. |
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| experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) |
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Definition
| A natural science approach to the study of behavior as a subject matter in its own right founded by B.F. Skinner; methodological features include rate of response as a basic dependent variable, repeated or continuous measurement of clearly defined response classes, within-subject experimental comparisons instead of group design, visual analysis of graphed data instead of statistical inference, and an emphasis on describing functional relations between behavior and controlling variables in the environment over formal theory testing. |
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| A fictitious or hypothetical variable that often takes the form on another name for the observed phenomenon it claims to explain and contributes nothing to a functional account of understanding of the phenomenon. |
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| A verbal statement summarizing the results of an experiment (or group of related experiments) that describes the occurrence of the phenomena under study as a function of the operation of one or more specified and controlled variables in the experiment in which a specific change in one event can be produced by manipulating another event, and that the change was unlikely the result of other factors. |
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| A presumed but unobserved process or entity (e.g., Freud's id, ego and superego). |
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| An approach to explaining behavior that assumes that a mental, or "inner," dimension exists that differs from a behavioral dimension and that phenomena in this dimension either directly cause or at least mediate some forms of behavior, if not all. |
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Term
| methodological behaviorism |
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Definition
| A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed outside of the realm of science. |
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| The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations. |
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| An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned. |
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| A thoroughgoing form of behaviorism that attempts to understand all human behavior, including private events such as thoughts and feelings, in terms of controlling variables in the history of the person (ontogeny) and the species (phylogeny). |
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(a) Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity.
(b) Repeating whole experiments to determine the generality of findings of previous experiments to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors. |
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Definition
| A systematic approach to the understanding of natural phenomena (as evidenced by description, prediction, and control) that relies on determinism as its fundamental assumption, empiricism as its primary rule, experimentation as its basic strategy, replication as a requirement for believability, parsimony as a value, and philosophic doubt as its guiding conscience. |
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