Behavior Analysis
A beautiful cardinal on a palo verde tree branch at Los Horcones.
Behavior analysis is the natural science of behavior. It studies the behavior of organisms (human and non human) by applying the scientific method*. Thi science is interested in understanding behavior and contributing to the improvement of society.
*The scientific method is used by physics, chemistry, biology and other natural sciences to study their subject matter.
Determinism. Behavior analysis assumes that behavior is lawful and determined. Determinism is not predestination, fatalism or pessimism. A deterministic view of behavior says that behavior is lawful and orderly. All behavior -human action- occurs as the result of other events - as a product of interaction with events. On the contrary, predestination and pesimism state that what is going to happen will happen despite what we do. There is no way of changing it. For those who think in this way, behavior is unmodifiable.
Determinism does not say that we are slaves of the circumstances. We change them and they change us. Our behavior and the environment are in constant interaction. The relationship between them