Applied Behavior Modification
Mgr. Dana Fajmonová Mgr. Michal Osuský
Basic Information
•Time: Monday 18:30 – 19:50
•Room: J2080 (Jinonice building)
•Credits: ??? SUSO
•Materials, information: dl.cuni.cz
•Contact: dana.fajmonova@gmail.com, michal.osusky@gmail.com
•Consultations: via email, on request
•Language: English (take it as a challenge)
Course requirements
•3 assignments:
▫field observation
▫behavioral change of your own behavior
▫behavioral change of somebody else´s behavior
▫Progressive deadlines
middle of course – min. 1 assignment
▫App: 600 words
•Final test – basic terms and application
•Voucher – 1 wikipedia article
Why did we decide to teach this course?
•It’s applied!
▫Strong connection between science and everyday life
•Strong impact
▫Knowledge that gives you tools for
influencing yourself, your environment
•High explanatory value
▫Basic behavioral patterns are everywhere around us – you will see!
Objectives of the course
•After you finish the course, you will:
▫Understand the basic terms related to behavior and its modification
▫Be more sensitive in observing,
understanding and interpreting behavior
▫Be able to apply the tools of BM, e.i.
change your or others’ behavior
Ethical considerations
•Is this stuff ethical? Discussion.
•Yes, if:
▫No manipulation (influencing other
behavior without his awareness and for the manipulators benefit)
▫Changes of others behavior should be for their personal good sake.
▫Encourage the person whose behavior is to be changed to participate in the design of the intervention
Building up your knowledge and skills
Complex techniques
• Self-management
▫Task management tools, coaching
techniques, self-development, changing habits, avoiding clinical symptoms
• Interaction (groups)
▫changing interactions in relationships, family
• Systems
▫performance management, organizational behavior management, token economies
Behavior analysis
•The science of behavior change
•The study of functional relations between behavior and environmental events.
•Does not study internal, drives, motives, unconscious conflicts
•Studies behavior and events in person´s surroundings that precede and follow
behavior and their effect.
Applied behavior analysis
• Science of applying experimentally derived principles of behavior to improve socially significant behavior.
• ABA takes what we know about behavior and uses it to bring about positive change (Applied).
• Behaviors are defined in observable and
measurable terms in order to assess change over time (Behavior).
• The behavior is analyzed within the
environment to determine what factors are influencing the behavior (Analysis).
What is behavior?
•Anything a person does that can be observed.
Problematic Behavior
•Examples of behavioral problems?
•What would be the solution?
•Is there a pattern?
•What you want to change on yourself?
•What you want to change on somebody else?
ABC Model
Behaviorism
• Philosophy of psychology based on the
proposition that all things that organisms do — including acting, thinking and feeling
— can and should be regarded as behaviors.
• Behaviors as such can be described
scientifically without recourse either to internal physiological events or to
hypothetical constructs such as the mind.
Intermezzo
•Joke about (radical)behaviorists:
2 behaviorists make love.
One of them says: “That was fine for you.
How was it for me?”
Basic assumptions
•Behavior is lawful: no random
phenomenon, it has order and sense.
•Explaining behavior consists of identifying functional relations between behavior and physical events.
•Thoughts and feelings do not explain
behavior but they are part of behavior to be explained.
Main researchers
•Pavlov – classical conditioning (wasn´t
officially behaviorist) - dogs (around 1900)
•John Watson - official founder of
behaviorism, coined the term behaviorism in 1912 Manifesto
•Thorndike – Law of effect - cats
•Skinner – operant conditioning – rats, pigeons
What is Watson famous for
• Little Albert
• 12 infants quote
„Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might
select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years“.
[Behaviorism (1930), p. 82]
What’s next
•Behavioral assessment / methods
