The famous document written by Baer, Wolf and Risley (the one we named at the end of ), continues to be used to indicate what dimensions the practice of applied behavior analysis should have 53 years after it was published.
Specifically, they mention 7 dimensions that we will review below.
Applied
This word signals the commitment to effective improvements in life, which translate into benefits for people’s lives.
To ensure that we comply with this dimension of ABA, we must select behaviors that are socially relevant for the participants and for those close to them (peers, family members, teachers, etc.). Consequently, we may observe that others behave more positively towards the participant.
Behavioral
Chocolate for the news! The applied behavior analysis must be behavioral. But the authors add three aspects of this dimension that need to be highlighted:
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- The selected behavior must be one that needs improvement (not a similar one or the subject’s verbal description of his or her behavior).
- The behavior must be measurable reliably and accurately, in its natural environment.
- When changes in behavior are observed, we must ask ourselves if the participant’s behavior changed or if it was the observer’s behavior that changed. The behavior of all people involved in the study must be monitored.
Analytical
This dimension refers to the demonstration of functional relationships between manipulated events and a reliable change in some measurable dimension of behavior. The manipulation of some behaviors in order to demonstrate a functional relationship is not always welcomed (especially with dangerous behaviors), so the aim is to demonstrate control to the extent possible.
Technological
We have met this criterion when operating procedures are identified and described in sufficient detail and clarity. The proof that you have achieved it is that another behavior analyst reads it and can replicate it without making mistakes, having to ask questions to understand what was meant to be written, or omitting or adding steps.
Behavioral strategies are replicable and can be taught.
Conceptually systematic
The numerous procedures and strategies used to modify behavior are derived from a few basic principles of behavior.
In applied behavior analysis, when explaining why a certain procedure is effective, the basic principles from which they arise must be used.
This is useful for several reasons: (a) Relating procedures to basic principles can allow us to obtain other similar procedures from the same principle; (b) it is this conceptual system that integrates the discipline (as the authors say, without this dimension instead of a discipline we would have a collection of tricks); (c) finally, learning and teaching applied behavior analysis would be more difficult.
Cash
We say that the application of behavioral techniques has been effective when the behavior improves to a practical degree. It must alter behavior enough to make it socially relevant.
But how do you know how much behavior must change to be socially relevant? Baer and her colleagues say the answer must come from the people who have to deal with the behavior.
Effectiveness can also be judged through the impact on the reasons that prompted people to seek help with those behaviors. For example, if we teach safety skills, we must make sure that the person is actually safer after learning them.
Generalization
To say that a behavior has become generalized, it must be maintained over time, after the treatment procedures have been withdrawn. Furthermore, it has to appear in contexts other than the environment in which it was trained and/or be used with other behaviors that were not directly trained in the intervention.
Additional ABA Features
Heward adds 5 characteristics that must be taken into account for the practice of applied behavior analysis to really be beneficial.
Explicable
Something fundamental is the frequent measurement of behavior to identify when we are succeeding or when we are not and need to make changes (reaction to lack of progress).
Public
ABA is a discipline where everything is visible, public, explicit and direct.
Realizable
Interventions can be implemented by mothers and fathers, teachers, workplace supervisors, and even the participant themselves. It’s not excessively complicated.
Empowering
It gives behavior analysts tools that work. Knowing how to do something and having the tools to do it provides security for analysts. So do the graphics, as proof of progress.
Optimistic
Because it suggests that we all have more or less the same potential (except in relation to genetic factors), the possibilities that each person has are celebrated.
Additionally, direct and continuous measurements allow us to detect small improvements in performance that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Also, the more positive results we obtain, the more optimistic we will be about the possibility of future successes.
Finally, research in applied behavior analysis provides many examples of people who were considered unable to learn, but did so through the procedures of this discipline.
Reference: Cooper, J.O., Heron, TE, & Heward, W.L. (2019). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd Edition, Global edition). Pearson.