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| The Basics of
Behavior Analysis
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Behavior Analysis
How It Works
Behavior is a dance. It is the continual
movement of a living being and the world in
which it lives. Behavior is the movement of
these two dance partners being carried along
on the complex rhythms of a million different
notes and steps. Sometimes dance is spontaneous. Someone just moves with the beat of the music. When the
music speeds up, the dancer moves faster. Behavior is usually like this.
Things change in the world and living beings change their behavior
accordingly.
But sometimes dance is choreographed. Someone decides exactly what
dance moves to make and when. They time the dance steps to the notes
on a page of sheet music and then they teach the dancers the steps,
practicing over and over again until they can do it without the
choreographer counting the steps and shouting instructions. Behavior is like
this too. Often someone has a desire to see people behave in a very
specific way and at specific times. A teacher wants students to listen while
she lectures. A coach wants a player to swing his bat as the ball crosses the
plate. In order to accomplish these goals, the teacher and the coach
become choreographers of behavior.
Just as a dance is choreographed and a song is played according to the
arrangement of symbols on a page of sheet music, the variables that
influence behavior can be drawn in symbols. The image below is an
example of how this can be done. It is a description, written in symbols, of
behavior.
Most people have no idea that when they try to change someone's
behavior that what they are really doing is making changes in any number
of the variables represented in this image. They are under the control of
their own set of variables even as they attempt to influence others. That's
why some teachers are successful and some are not. That's why coaches
are successful teaching some players and not others.
But what if you could figure out how to manipulate just the right variable
at just the right time to change someone's behavior just the way you want
to change it? Well, that is what behavior analysts are trained to do. The
image above shows why the study of behavior is a sophisticated science.
Behavior analysts spend years in training to understand behavior as it is
influenced and modified by this complex matrix of environmental factors,
and to use these factors to change behavior for the better.
We can, however, talk about behavior in a bit simpler terms, and that is
what we hope to accomplish here.
First of all, let's be clear what exactly we are talking about. Behavior is
anything a person, animal or any organism, does. Running, throwing things,
hitting, eating and jumping are some obvious examples.
Some less obvious examples would be talking, thinking and feeling. These
behaviors are often referred to as "cognitive processes," but they are just
behaviors that occur inside our bodies, which makes them less obvious to
others. But they are behaviors and they are influenced by features of the
environment just like running, eating and jumping are.
The environment is the next thing we need to clarify in order to
understand how "men act upon their world, and change it, and are changed
in turn by the consequences of their action."
The letter B in the picture above stands for Behavior. All of the other
symbols represent features of the environment that influence behavior. So
as you can imagine, there are a lot of things in the world that influence our
behavior. The two most important, though, are antecedents and
consequences.
An antecedent is a condition that is present in the environment before
behavior occurs. A consequence is something that happens as a result of
behavior. Feeling thirsty is an antecedent condition that exists within your
body. If there is a soda machine present, this is an antecedent that exists
in your physical surroundings. These two antecedents together increase the
likelihood that you will put money in the soda machine and push one of
the buttons. These two behaviors produce a consequence: a soda falls out
of the machine which you can drink and quench your thirst.
Consequences exert the most influence over our behavior. There are
different types of consequences. Some make behavior occur more often.
Some make behavior occur less often. Next we'll learn more
about the effect consequences have on our behavior.
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An easy to follow discussion on the basics.
How does BA affect your life? |
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