ABSTRACT
The frontiers of behavior modification are changing. The central questions surrounding behavior modification focused on its application with individuals. The primary questions then were whether behavior modification was as good as, or better than, traditional forms of treatment; whether behavior modification was really a placebo effect; whether behavior modification merely eliminated symptoms, leaving behind the basic neurosis; and similar issues. Judging from the literature, what is real in the field consists of rather small-scale attempts to change the behavior of isolated units of people within larger natural settings. In natural settings, the behavior modifier faces a variety of problems that do not relate directly to theoretical issues in behavior modification and that are either nonexistent or relatively inconspicuous in the laboratory or special research situation, where the investigator has almost complete control over the contingencies of reinforcement.
