Behavior Modification

One of the problems that we’ll have to address with this site is establishing what does and does not count as behavior modification. There is a general or lay-public use of the term “behavior modification” and then there is a more technical use that is closer to “behavior analysis.” I’d like this site to tilt in the direction of the latter. Many different objects or events can modify behavior, but procedures based on behavior analytic research should be the focus of BehaviorMod.info.

The entry under “Behavior modification” in WikiPedia is not bad. As this site evolves, some participants might discuss strengths and weaknesses of that entry and, perhaps, even edit it.

How would I define behavior modification? Easy: Behavior modification is the systematic manipulation of environmental variables to cause predicted changes in people’s behavior. One may substitute “organisms” for people, of course, because the same behavior-analytic principles that describe how to affect people’s behavior also apply to other animals.

Oh, and that word, “manipulate.” Does it make some folks uneasy? Well, take it in the sense of how one handles tools (environmental variables, in this case), not in the sense of controlling in an unscrupulous way.

What’s not behavior mod, in the sense that I hope we use the term? I won’t go into the marvelous detail that I vaguely remember from an article by Israel Goldiamond (though I ought to reread it), but here are some notes:

• Reducing behavior: Indeed, behavior modification procedures can be used to decrease the frequency of behavior, but they can also be used to increase behavior, teach new behavior, and cause many other changes, too.
• Drugs: To be sure, pharmaceuticals can alter behavior, but as a therapy, they operate on the individual differently
• Domination: Behavior modification procedures can be used unscrupulously to subjugate others, but they also can be used for humane outcomes, including such desirable results as enabling people to exercise self-control.
• Etc.: Please add to this list.

Goldiamond, I. (1974). Toward a constructional approach to social problems: Ethical and constitutional issues raised by applied behavior analysis. Behaviorism, 2(1), 1-84.