Applied behavior analysis (ABA), also called behavioral engineering, is a branch of psychology that uses respondent and operant conditioning to change human and animal behavior. It is the applied wing of behavior analysis, distinct from radical behaviorism as a philosophy of science and from the experimental analysis of behavior as basic research. The term applied behavior analysis replaced the older term behavior modification because the newer term better captures that the field works by assessing the functional relationship between a targeted behavior and its environment, through a functional behavior assessment, and then developing socially acceptable alternatives to maladaptive behavior using differential reinforcement, rather than simply changing behavior without accounting for that environmental interaction. ABA is most associated with autism intervention but also extends to applied animal behavior, substance abuse, organizational behavior management, classroom management and acceptance and commitment therapy, and it remains a controversial field, with the autistic rights movement rejecting it for emphasizing normalization over acceptance and for its historical use of aversives, including electric shocks.
Facts
Central QuestionApplied behavior analysis asks how the functional relationship between a targeted behavior and its environment can be identified and used to change human and animal behavior toward socially significant, more adaptive alternatives. 1 Key DebateSome neurodiversity advocates, including autistic people who have gone through ABA interventions, criticize the practice as emphasizing normalization instead of acceptance, arguing it reinforces autistic people to mask their true characteristics and conform to an overly narrow conception of normal behavior. 1 Connections
Associated With
ABA's technology of behavior change is built directly on Skinner's operant conditioning research.
Sources
1. Applied behavior analysis
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, second paragraph
ABA changes behavior by first assessing the functional relationship between a targeted behavior and the environment, a process known as a functional behavior assessment.
Criticisms, Neurodiversity movement section
Some neurodiversity advocates, including autistic people who have experienced ABA interventions, criticize that ABA attempts to eliminate, suppress or reduce autistic behaviors and reinforces autistic people to mask their true characteristics, imitate non-autistic behaviors (e.g. eye contact, body language) and conform to an overly narrow conception of normal behavior.
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