ABSTRACT
The analysis of behaviour is applied, if first, the behaviours under analysis can be categorized as a problem by at least the individual troubled by them and the practitioner to whom the troubled individual complains; and second, changing those behaviours does indeed solve or alleviate the complainer’s problem. In behavioural application, behaviours are defined to be publicly observable by virtually any observer, rather than only by someone trained in the relevant clinical science. Applied behaviour analysis is presumed to be more of a scientific process than an artful or personal one. So far, the largely reinforcement-based conceptual system of applied behaviour analysis has met that criterion fairly well. Almost every clinical discipline aspires to effectiveness; the distinctive disciplinary question is how to define it. The internal logic of applied behaviour analysis suggests two sometimes distinctive meanings of effectiveness.
