ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses in a general way the relationships between one systematic approach to experimental psychology and an orientation to problems confronted by applied psychologists. It argues that 'the experimental analysis of behaviour' has provided the scientific foundation for 'applied behaviour analysis' and for the techniques of 'behaviour modification'. Operant conditioning is the empirical study of how such emitted and potentially variable behaviour may nevertheless adjust to different arrangements of environmental circumstances and consequences. Radical behaviourism provides, then, an analysis not simply of the reactions of rats to controlled experimental contingencies, but also of the interactions of people in unstructured situations. Applied behaviour analysis is simply the extension of the philosophy of radical behaviourism to behavioural problems in applied settings. The general approach of behaviour modification is being extended to more and more challenging and 'normal' situations, in schools, with the problems confronted by social workers, and in community planning.