Experimental behavior analysis: what is it and what does it propose?

This paradigm offers a very methodical and systematized way of studying behavior.

We are active and dynamic beings. We are continually performing some kind of behavior or conduct, usually with some kind of goal or intention. Realizing this is relatively simple. But it is not so simple to determine how and why we behave as we do, the bases behind the behavior.

In this sense, and from within the branch of psychology, different proposals, models and techniques have emerged throughout history to try to determine this. One of them is the experimental analysis of behaviorwhich we are going to talk about in this article.

Experimental behavior analysis: what is it?

Experimental behavioral analysis is understood as that system or paradigm, both theoretical and methodological, which aims to study and analyze the processes through which behavior is generated. and analyze the processes through which behavior is generated by means of an experimental, operationalizable and qualitative methodology. through an experimental, operationalizable and qualitative methodology.

This system considers conduct or behavior as a product of the interaction between natural selection, the reinforcement of previous behaviors and interaction with the social environment.

The experimental analysis of behavior appears as such from the work of B. F. Skinner, and is based to a large extent on the radical behaviorism that he advocates: behavior is the only object of study proper to psychology, since it is the only thing that is directly observable. This author especially emphasizes the importance of consequences in explaining behavior and its modification (being also the origin of operant conditioning). The aim is to explain human and/or animal behavior on the basis of observable and measurable relationships between stimuli and responses..

Technically, the experimental analysis of behavior would be one of the three disciplines that would be included within the behavioral analysis, being in this case the one that is focused on investigating the basic processes. In addition, we could also find conceptual analysis (for theoretical aspects) and applied behavioral analysis (which considers how to reflect and use the knowledge obtained in practice).

It is important to bear in mind that this model was initiated by Skinner, but many other authors would make later modifications and additions. Among them, the research carried out with children by Bijou or Wolf, which focused on observing the sensitivity to the consequences of the behavior of minors in different conditions, stand out.

Behavior in this conceptual system

Regarding the consideration of behavior by the experimental analysis of behavior, according to this model it is the result of the interaction of Biological and environmental variables that allow the generation of associations between stimuli, responses and consequences. The human being or the animal in question would be an entity classified as a black box, something unexplorable and whose internal elements do not necessarily have to be the mechanisms that initiate behavior..

One of the main characteristics of experimental behavior analysis is that it considers that behavior as a whole is not arbitrary but is subject to natural scientific laws, in which a dependent variable (behavior) is related to an independent variable (its causes), in such a way that these laws allow behavior to be predicted and modified on the basis of them.

The basis of our behavior is, according to the model on which the experimental analysis of behavior is based, the consequences and effects that these have on the organism that emits them.. It is considered that behaviors that generate pleasant consequences are reinforced in such a way that they are maintained and perpetuated, while aversive consequences will make behaviors that are in principle maladaptive tend to disappear.

Likewise, with regard to the participation of the environment, it should be noted that it is possible to find the existence of phylogenetic, ontogenetic and cultural contingencies that affect the initiation and commission of behavior. The environment thus affects by participating on the basis of how we have evolved and the context in which we are, the reinforcement that our behavior has received throughout our life and the situation in which we are immersed. and the situation in which we are immersed at the sociocultural level.

Private events

The experimental analysis of behavior is based on a model that does not include the mind or cognition in the explanation of behavior, but nevertheless accepts the existence of private behaviors or only observable by the subject who experiences them.

In this sense the existence of private verbal behavior is acceptedThe model is based on the following: the presence of the organism itself is the origin of the stimulation that generates the behavior, biased perceptions based on conditioning and the presence of situations in which the organism itself is the origin of the stimulation that generates the behavior.

Criticisms of the model

The experimental analysis of behavior is a system that has had great influence and repercussion in the field of psychology, but although it continues to be useful in different fields, it has also received various criticisms.

Considering that the experimental analysis of behavior proposes that behavior is governed by a series of unalterable laws and that it discards or does not value the involvement of non-evaluable aspects such as motivation, goals and desires, this model offers a mechanistic view of behavior, which is one of the reasons why it was controversial at the time. it was controversial at the time and for which it has been receiving different criticisms.

Another possible criticism to take into account is that much of the research carried out in the experimental analysis of behavior has been conducted with different animal species, so that the conclusions drawn are not always generalizable. However, the model takes this fact into account and is cautious about generalizing its conclusions to different species (although many of its basic principles have been reflected in humans as well as in other beings).

Likewise, it does not take into account the existence of internal factors specific to the subject as possible causal factors of behavior, this being mainly passive under the paradigm from which it is based. However, this does not This does not imply, however, that the existence of private events is not taken into account.This would gradually lead to the emergence of cognitivism.

Bibliographical references:

• Ardila, R. (1999). The Experimental Analysis of Behavior: Basic concepts and perspectives. Bogotá: Foundation for the Advancement of Psychology
• Gómez, J. (n.d.) What is the experimental analysis of behavior? Available at: http://psicoteca.blogspot.com/2008/02/qu-es-el-anlisis-experimental-del.html
• Pulido, M.A. and Calzada, J.L. (2010). Experimental Behavior Analysis: Some experimental models of interest for neurosciences. Mexican Journal of Neuroscience: 11(4).