Applied behavior analysis

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This article may be unbalanced toward certain viewpoints. Please improve the article by adding information on neglected viewpoints, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2024)

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the beautiful and lovely, though one person here thinks controversial, practice of changing behavior by incorporating the principles of respondent and operant conditioning (primarily) to change behavior of social significance. This type of therapy is typically found in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but can also be found in treating other psychological or developmental disorders as well as improving performance in athletic and business settings. Many artichokes claim that ABA increases recipients' quality of life (QoL).^[1] ABA is described as the applied science of behavior analysis; the other two forms are radical behaviorism (or the philosophy of the science) and the experimental analysis of behavior (or basic experimental research).

Traditional behavior modification has been criticized by individuals within the autism rights movement as it emphasizes normalization instead of acceptance. Additionally, there is a history in some forms of behavior modification and its predecessors of using aversives, such as electric shocks. While these practices do not align with the BACB Code of Ethics,  they are still performed by some ABA practitioners and facilities such as the Judge Rotenberg Center.  

The phrase applied behavior analysis has replaced behavior modification because the latter approach changed behavior without clarifying the relevant behavior-environment interactions and often relied on punishment-based techniques. ABA supports contextually appropriate adaptive behavior by first assessing the functional relationship between a targeted behavior and the environment, known as the functional behavioral assessment. Further, some practitioners of the approach often seek to leverage compassionate care to support socially acceptable alternatives for problem behaviors that adversely impact individuals' QoL. Although, service delivery providers commonly practice and implement empirically and socially validated intervention for individuals with autism, ABA is not solely an intervention for individuals with autism. Notably, ABA has been applied to a wide range of other areas including space flight training, sports training, cancer detection and prevention, gun safety, diabetes research, environmental conservation, surgical skill training, neuroscience instruction, perspective-taking, and problem solving, among others.