Deck 2: Behavior As a Scientific and Practical Subject Matter

Question 1

______ is the subject matter for all behavior analysts.

A) Service delivery
B) Behavior
C) Applied psychology
D) Biology

Answer 1

B

Question 2

A science of behavior investigates the ways in which particular behaviors change as a result of interactions between an organism and its environmental circumstances. However, it is important to acknowledge that behavior is fundamentally a(n) ______ phenomenon:

A) biological
B) teleological
C) ontogenic
D) topographical

Answer 2

A

Question 3

According to the intra-organism nature of behavior, the term "group behavior" is misleading because:

A) there is not a strict definition of how many organisms are required to form a "group"
B) a group may perform multiple behaviors at the same time
C) group behavior may be very brief or occur in very small movements, and therefore go unnoticed
D) a group is not a biological organism and therefore cannot behave

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following would be considered a behavior?

A) Reading a book
B) Being hungry
C) Getting wet
D) Staying in bed

Question 5

When defining behavior we should have a clear understanding about the nature and limits of behavior (what it is and what it isn't) because

A) behavior includes both what is real and what is fictional
B) our colloquial history is embedded with mentalism
C) behavior includes only what is outside the skin
D) there are certain behaviors we cannot define

Question 6

What does it mean to say that behavior is part of the interface between the organism and the environment?

A) That behavior occurs because of the biological processes occurring within the organism
B) That in order to say a behavior has occurred one must be able to visibly see an interaction between the organism and the environment
C) That behavior is not something an organism possesses, but rather an interaction between the organism and the environment
D) That biological phenomenon occurs inside the skin and behavior is what happens outside the skin

Question 7

______ refers to the full set of physical circumstances in which any behavior occurs.

A) Environment
B) Antecedent
C) Observability
D) Consequence

Question 8

The following definition of behavior identifies features that are essential for behavior analyst researchers and practitioners:

A) behavior is an organism's interaction with themselves and their biological features
B) behavior is an organism's interaction with its environment and involves functional relations between biological features of the organism and the environment
C) behavior is an organism's biological features and interaction between biological processes
D) behavior is an organism's functional relations with the environment

Question 9

Why is "waiting for a text message" not a behavior?

A) It does not involve an interactive condition between the organism and the environment
B) It does not involve an organism
C) It does not involve the physical environment
D) The sole evidence for it would be its effect on a measuring instrument

Question 10

A definition of behavior is itself _______.

A) mentalistic
B) verbal behavior
C) permanent
D) hypothetical

Question 11

Why do we define behavior?

A) To determine what inner causes of behavior are
B) So that we can study or change behavior
C) To aid in decisions regarding research designs
D) To understand the biology of an organism

Question 12

A good definition of behavior will deny behavior status to events that

A) involve a live organism
B) involve the physical environment
C) do not involve any evidence other than effect on a measuring instrument
D) do not involve an interaction between organism and environment

Question 13

Other approaches to studying and explaining behavior (not behavior-analytic) tend to be based on:

A) the biological basis of behavior
B) group behavior
C) hypothesized inner processes
D) direct measurement and controlled experimentation

Question 14

What is the primary importance of the definition of behavior?

A) How it guides the biology of the organism
B) How it guides the underlying inner causes of behavior
C) How it guides the work of researchers and practitioners
D) How it guides the thought processes of researchers for future studies

Question 15

What we know about behavior suggests that practitioners and researchers should

A) measure a target behavior a number of times under each experimental or treatment phase
B) compare data across baseline and treatment conditions
C) analyze behavior at the level of the individual organism
D) do all of the above

Question 16

What is the "bottom line" for researchers in behavior analysis?

A) To improve lives of their participants
B) To reveal relations between behavior and environment
C) To determine inner causes of behavior
D) To understand the impact of verbal behavior on definitions

Question 17

Abby is a behavior analyst practitioner who provides ABA services to individuals with autism. As a practitioner, what best describes her "bottom line":

A) to reveal causes of autism
B) to help parents define behaviors that they see
C) to understand the complications of behaviors associated with autism
D) to improve lives by changing behavior

Question 18

Max is a behavior analysis researcher who is interested in assessment of problem behavior. When defining problem behavior, what does Max need to consider?

A) The underlying root causes of the behavior
B) How to create a working definition to guide his decisions
C) How to alter biological processes to assist in defining behavior
D) The attributes of the person emitting the problem behavior

Question 19

What does "behavior as interface" mean?

A) That interactions between behavior and environment must be only public
B) That behavior involving only movement can still be interchangeable with behavior
C) That behavior is something an organism possesses
D) There must be functional relations between the behavior of a living organism and the environment

Question 20

Is "being hungry" behavior?

A) Yes, the biology of the organism being hungry interacts with the environment
B) Yes, any private event is behavior
C) No, it does not involve meaningful interactions between organism and environment
D) No, a dead man can be hungry

Question 21

What is it important to have a good definition of behavior?

Question 22

What is mentalism and how does it affect definitions of behavior?

Question 23

Behavior is a part of biology but why is it important to distinguish behavior from biology?

Question 24

At what level does behavior occur and how does this impact measurement of behavior?

Question 25

Why does the definition of behavior exclude "events for which the sole evidence is their effect on a measuring instrument?"

Question 26

What is the major problem with how behavior is viewed in psychology and the social sciences?

Question 27

Why can behavior not be a property or attribute of an organism?

Question 28

Why is it problematic to refer to group behavior?

Question 29

List the 4 main exclusionary criteria for labeling an event as behavior.

Question 30

Danny is working on a definition of SIB for a client. What key features should his working definition of SIB include?

Question 31

What is the Dead Man's Test and give an example of behavior and describe why it passes the Dead Man's Test.

Question 32

Why is "falling off a chair" not considered a behavior.

Question 33

Why is "cooperativeness" or "being cooperative" not usefully referred to as a behavior?

Question 34

Why is it important to understand that the environment is not restricted to events outside the skin?

Question 35

Why should investigators refrain from referring to "inner causes" in their definition of behavior?

Question 36

Why is it important to acknowledge that scientific definitions of a phenomenon are limited by what we do not know?

Question 37

Why are good definitions of behavior useful for researchers?

Question 38

In what ways are researchers and practitioners similar in their approach to defining behavior? In what ways do they differ?

Question 39

Jane is a BCBA practitioner interested in understanding her client's engagement in skin picking. John is a behavior analysis researcher looking at skin picking at a university research lab. In what ways will Jane and John be similar to their approach in defining skin picking? In what ways will they differ?

Question 40

What does "a definition is a bit of verbal behavior" mean and how does our cultural language affect how we define behavior?