Behavior Analysis is a
field that has some overlap with Psychology, but is not the same thing.
All Behavior Analysts are not Psychologists, and certainly all
Psychologists are not Behavior Analysts!
Behavior Analysis is the study of
human action.
It is the study of Behavior (particularly human behavior) for its own
sake (not as a way of studying something else, such as 'mind'.
Behavior Analysts do
believe in the existence of thinking, but as another behavior
that needs to be explained -- not as an explanation for
behavior.
What we reject is the idea that there is some thing called a mind
that has a real existence and causes behavior.
Behavior Analysis asumes that its
subject matter (human behavior) can be studied scientifically.
Scientific method:
Making testable statements about what will be observed, then testing
those predictions and using the results to refine the system -- make
better predictions in the future.
This means that we must assume that our subject matter (behavior) is
'lawful' -- things happen for reasons that can be predicted.
Behavior is an effect; the causes
can (in principle at least) be identified.
Behavior doesn't 'just happen'.
What kind of causes do Behavior
Analysts look for?
Scientists agree that the
immediate mechanism controlling behavior is the central nervous sysem;
particularly the brain.
The study of this mechanism is the
science of neurophysiology.
This is an interesting and important science; one that complements
behavior analysis.
The science of neurophysiology (the study of the brain) cannot
tell us why a person does a particular thing at a particular time and
place.
For that we need to know the conditions under which the behavior occurs.
That is the science of behavior analysis.
Another branch of biology which we
find helpful is evolutionary biology.
Our brains, like the rest of us, are a result of evolution.
This sets limits and predispositions within which behavior occurs.
One can't understand behavior without understanding evolution.
Again, this may help to explain why the laws of behavior are what they
arem but cannot account for the specific behavior of individuals.
These two fields of Biology
bracket our field of interest:
the manner in which the consequences of behavior and the
situations in which behavior occurs determine what people will do in
the future.
This is the science of BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS.