Explain Behavior from the Perspective of Radical Behaviorism | A-3 BCBA® Sixth Edition Task List

A.3 Radical Behaviorism Public and Private Events ABA Exam Review

What is Radical Behaviorism?

Radical behaviorism is the philosophy of science underlying behavior analysis, guiding our practice, experimentation, and research. Unlike earlier forms of behaviorism, which only considered observable behaviors in the analysis of behavior, radical behaviorism includes both public and private events as behaviors influenced by the environment. This means that both observable behaviors, as well as thoughts and feelings, are influenced by behavior principles and interventions.

Key Characteristics of Radical Behaviorism:

  • Recognizes thoughts and emotions as behaviors (private events) which differentiates it from Methodological Behaviorism.
  • Emphasizes the role of the environment in shaping both public and private events.
  • Focuses on functional relationships between behavior and the environment.

Public vs. Private Events: What’s the Difference?

The only difference between public and private events is observability. Both are behaviors and both are influenced by antecedents, consequences, and environmental variables. Although in ABA we are typically going to focus on public, observable events.

Public Events (Observable Behaviors)

Public events are behaviors that can be seen, measured, and manipulated directly and consistently. These are the behaviors we typically focus on in ABA interventions. We do this because we are able to more reliably and accurately measure these behaviors.

Example of a Public Event:
A child receives a gift on Christmas morning and opens it. Anyone present can observe and measure this behavior of opening the gift.

Private Events (Thoughts and Emotions)

Private events occur within the skin and are not directly observable by others. Although private events follow the same behavioral principles as public events, they are difficult to measure reliably, which is why ABA interventions focus primarily on public behaviors.

Example of a Private Event:
A person is given a difficult task (antecedent) and starts to feel nervous (private behavior).

Common Misconception: Private events are often mistaken as causes of behavior. For example:
“Because I was nervous, I failed the exam.” is attributing cause to ‘nervous’ which is the behavior.
Instead, think of it as: “I was given an exam, I felt nervous.”

Private events are behaviors themselves, not causes of other behaviors. This distinction is crucial in behavioral analysis.

Why Does ABA Focus on Public Events?

While radical behaviorism acknowledges private events as an important aspect of behavior change, ABA practitioners focus on observable behaviors for the following reasons:

🔹 Measurability: Private events cannot be observed or measured directly without special tools, making them difficult to analyze and change effectively.

🔹 Reliability: Interventions are based on consistent, measurable behaviors, ensuring that treatment is objective and data-driven.

🔹 Intervention Design: Treatment plans require clear, operational definitions of behavior, which is challenging with private events.

However, this does not mean we ignore private events. Instead, we acknowledge that thoughts and emotions exist but focus on changing the observable behaviors associated with them. You should always consider the thoughts and feelings of your clients when designing and evaluating your treatment plans.

Functional Relationships in Radical Behaviorism

A primary objective of radical behaviorism is identifying functional relationships between behavior and the environment. Why does behavior occur? What antecedents and consequences influence it?

By understanding behavior functionsattention, escape, tangible, and automatic reinforcement—we can design effective interventions to change behavior.

Example:
A child throws a tantrum at the store because they want a toy. Instead of attributing the tantrum to emotions like “frustration” or “anger,” we look at the environmental variables maintaining the behavior—perhaps they received the toy in the past after tantruming.

Focusing on observable antecedents and consequences allows us to implement clear, measurable interventions, such as differential reinforcement or extinction procedures.

What Are the Main Ideas Behind Radical Behaviorism?

  • Radical behaviorism is the philosophy behind ABA, including both public and private events as behaviors.
  • Public events are observable behaviors, while private events (thoughts, emotions) occur within the skin and are not directly measurable.
  • ABA focuses on public events because they can be observed, measured, and manipulated to create meaningful behavior change.
  • Private events follow the same behavioral principles but are harder to define and measure in practice.
  • The goal of behavior analysis is to establish functional relationships between the environment and behavior to develop effective interventions.

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