The functional analysis of behavior

Behavior Analysis main concern is with the usage of functional units of behavior. The influences that led to this posture are analyzed: a natural sciences model, an evolutionist model, an empiricist model, and a Machian functionalist model. Accordingly, a functional analysis of behavior is an analysis of its fitness to environmental conditions. The implications of this option to the causality model adopted by Behavior Analysis are considered, specially in relation to rejected metaphors such as the constant relations and the chained sequences ones as well as its linguistic limitations. The basic steps of a functional analysis are described and then broken into smaller molecular actions. Examples and strategies for performing a functional analysis of behavior are given, as well as bibliographical references for both basic and applied analysis.

Behavior Analysis; Functional Analysis; Radical behaviorism; Skinner