POLI 4020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Applied Behavior Analysis, Behaviorism, Classical Conditioning
Document Summary
General theory about behavior (behaviorism: the determinants of behavior can be best identified by studying its observable features, behavior is determined, in large part, by observable features of the environment. The experimental analysis of behavior: the study of basic learning processes involving interaction between observable features of behavior and the environment. Applied behavior analysis: application of learning principles to problems of social importance (behavior modification, behavior therapy) The job of science: to find order in nature, to find the like in the apparently unlike. Its easy to say how things are different. In science, we take more difficult task of finding out how things are similar. If i can study a gorilla or rooster to learn about its anatomy, then i can learn something same thing with behavior. On a more basic level, we do thigs for similar reasons. What the human and gorilla are doing that is similar will be our focus.
