Hello welcome to module 2 Philosophical Foundations of Applied Behavior

Analysis. I am Dr. Sam DiGangi. In this screencast I will outline and

introduce some of the key components of this module.

We will be looking in particular at

Behavior analysis as a science philosophical assumptions underlying

Behavior Analysis and behavior from the perspective of Radical
Behaviorism.

As we begin the readings for this module you will note that the

Vocabulary and key terminology introduced in Module 1 carries over into

our focus and into our subsequent discussions in this module - and next
week in module 3 as we begin our team discussion activities.

In this module some key terms that we will be focusing on include

pragmatism, realism, mentalism,

determinism.

Explanatory fiction, private events and public events and natural events.

In the readings and viewings in this module we continue our focus on

Behavior Analysis as a science..

and Introduced pragmatism. Pragmatism holds that a question is only worth

pursuing if the answer to it would change our knowledge of the world. To
be pragmatic is to export answers questions for which the answers would
improve someone's circumstance. In module one we talked about social
validity.

Similar to social validity, in behavior analysis we only intervene when

there is a behavior that needs to be or that is shown to be of importance

to the individual as a focus for change.

We talked about Behavior Analysis as a science can help to look at a

definition of Science and.

In particular science defined as the state of knowing; knowledge as

distinguished from ignorance or misunderstanding.

A system or method reconciling practical ends with scientific laws.

Through data collection and Analysis all behavior analysts are scientist
we seek to better understand the behaviors were clients so that we can
improve their lives.

When we look at Determinism.

Determinism refers to the assumption that the universe is a lawful

orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events.
Not in accidental fashion.

Determinism holds that there are always causes of behavior.

All actions are the result of

heredity or environmental factors - there are no instances of behavior.

that do not have a physical cause. That's an important.

component to recognize in particular

In the way that

we

define

Behaviorism and the behaviorist perspective.

In Behavior Analysis we focus on environmental impact on organisms and

as we talked about in

Module 1 we look at the antecedents and the consequences of behavior. In

contrast, Realism assumes a real world exists apart from - separate from
- our perception.

Behavior analysis focuses on that which we can see rather than that which
we can feel.

In contrast to

a Behaviorist perspective, MENTALISM

is the Assumption of an inner dimension as an explanation for Behavior

describing Behavior as having a non-physical, a mental cause, a
belief...Mentalistic

refers to any assumption of an inner cause of behavior something that we

cannot observe or measure

or confirm.

The use of mentalistic terms implies that the actual cause has been
determined.

Which is fallacious because we of course cannot

confirm, verify, measure or observe these assumed or hypothesized causes.

As we will examine in our readings

in this module and in our discussion

in module 3

Mentalistic causes,

hypotheses, assumptions explanations of behavior are very common in

everyday discussion.

and in ommon language. We will look closely at the risk of using

mentalistic

terminology and phrases

in our professional communication.

Explanatory fiction.

Is another area that we will focus on. Explanatory fiction refers to the
fictitious variable often another name for an observable Behavior which
implies that there's an inner cause of behavior mental events used to
explain behavior. An example that I provide here - assumptions of

"Low self-esteem" as a cause of behavior.

Explainatory fictions fail to provide

or identify a useful cause for Behavior - because if a person's behavior

is explained by

a hypothesized concept of "low self-esteem" the cause would be considered

to be within them something that we cannot see something that we cannot
measure.

On this slide I have compared

Mentalistic explanations with behavioral explanations.

As example mentalistic explanations

tend to refer to cause of behavior as being WITHIN

an individual - these are not observable, not measurable.

ASSUMES the explanatory fictions as the the reason

for the behavior. Internal causes cannot be changed or the pathway to

change is complex and we cannot measure...

This often involves

reference to FEELINGS or BELIEFS in

contrast, behavioral explanations

focus on the cause as directly

related to

OBSERVABLE, measurable environmental variables -- environmental

variables that can be manipulated to change, to impact Behavior and the
consequence stimuli.

lead to increases or decreases in the behavior.

We will pause for an active Student Response (ASR).

Our readings in this module look at behavior from the perspective of

public events, private events, natural events. Natural event refers to an
event is located on time and space in the natural world and is explained
by other natural events specifically we look at those

which are public in those which are private. When we talk about public
events we are looking at an event that can be observed by another person.

Examples - walking across the street -

Eating lunch - these are behaviors that

others

can see - others can observe.

Other than the individual who is

performing or engaging in the behavior.

Private events - refer to events that can only be observed and verified
by the individual performing the behavior.

This might refer to concepts such as THINKING, an individual's personal

thoughts. The behavior

that we might refer to in common language as "talking to oneself".

In module 4 we will look

more closely at

this type of behavior in particular when we focus on what we refer to as

-

Verbal Behavior.

And we will pause for an Active Student Response (ASR). Welcome

back! I want to call attention to two readings and two viewings that

we will
review and discuss in this module - the first Baer, Wolf and Risley 1987
- Some Still Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis. This is
follow on to the article that you read in Module 1 --

Baer, Wolf and Risley, 1968.

This article obviously was written and published 19 years after

the initial article and as you go through this reading I encourage you to
refer back to Baer, Wolf and Risley, 1968

and compare the

not only the

areas of focus that the authors in 87 call attention to but also your
read of

changes, differences similarities between the two articles. This

something we will also be looking at in our discussion in

Module 3.

Behaviorism at Fifty - an article

by BF Skinner in 1969.

In this article I call your attention in particular to page 955 - the

section it's entitled "mental weigh stations" and refers to the hungry
pigeon experiment. I also make note of this

section of the article in the readings within our module -

in this section

Skinner gives an example of

a mentalistic, everyday colloquial discussion or interpretation of the

behavior of

this pigeon and

presents the interpretation in behaviorist - behavioral terminologies. We

will be looking at this as we progress through the course as well.

In this module I have also included two viewings - two videos that
feature BF Skinner - one is from 1959.

Entitled - Learning and Behavior

Conquest. In this video you get to see and hear BF Skinner.

talk about and describe the role of reinforcement in shaping behavior -
you will find his terminology to be

familiar to the terminology of the readings that you have engaged with in
module 1 and module 2. And then I have also included

a video also of Skinner from 1977 - description of behaviorism and of

behaviorism as a science. So you can also see how Skinner in 1977 is
describing our field.

Again we will

have opportunity to directly discuss these in Module 3.

Enjoy Module 2 - if you have questions please post to your group

Virtual Office discussion area

Or email - DM - your instructional team or me directly.

I will see you in Module 3!