SETTING EVENTS IN APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS: TOWARD A CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL EXPANSION

TLDR

Applied behavior analysis is recognized as a natural science approach to human behavior, yet it has limited access to the full range of environmental events that influence socially significant behavior. The authors propose a third area of expansion: the analysis of setting events. The authors trace the historical development of setting events as a behavior influence concept and discuss necessary methodological and conceptual modifications, providing examples of descriptive and experimental setting event analyses. Recent changes that incorporate side effects and social validation, along with the proposed setting event analysis, demonstrate profitable expansions of the traditional applied behavior analysis model.

Abstract

The contributions of applied behavior analysis as a natural science approach to the study of human behavior are acknowledged. However, it is also argued that applied behavior analysis has provided limited access to the full range of environmental events that influence socially significant behavior. Recent changes in applied behavior analysis to include analysis of side effects and social validation represent ways in which the traditional applied behavior analysis conceptual and methodological model has been profitably expanded. A third area of expansion, the analysis of setting events, is proposed by the authors. The historical development of setting events as a behavior influence concept is traced. Modifications of the basic applied behavior analysis methodology and conceptual systems that seem necessary to setting event analysis are discussed and examples of descriptive and experimental setting event analyses are presented.