Customer Reviews

Applied Behavior Analysis

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I work as a behavioral consultant for children with autism and have read hundreds of ABA-related books -- good, bad, and ugly. I first came into contact with this one while getting my Masters in ABA from Columbia U. It was the foundation of several of my courses and definitely the source I return to most often in my consulting work. The book is expensive but well, well worth it. I highly recommend it. Here's a chapter list so that you can judge for yourself:

1. Definition & Characteristics of ABA... 2. Basic Concepts (behavior, respondent/operant conditioning, reinforcers, and three-term contingencies)... 3. Selecting & Defining Target Behavior... 4. Measuring & Recording Behavior... 5. Planning & Directing Observational Procedures... 6. Production & Interpretation of Graphic Data Displays... 7. Introduction to Analysis... 8. Reversal & Alternating Treatment Designs... 9. Multiple Baseline & Changing Criterion Designs... 10. Planning, Replicating & Evaluating Research in ABA... 11. Operant Reinforcement... 12. Schedules of Reinforcement... 13. Stimulus Control... 14. Behavioral Shaping... 15. Behavior Chains... 16. Imitation... 17. Extinction... 18. Decreasing Behavior with Differential Reinforcement... 19. Punishment by Contingent Presentation of a Stimulus... 20. Overcorrection... 21. Time Out from Positive Reinforcement... 22. Response Cost... 23. Contingency Contracting... 24. Token Economy... 25. Group-Oriented Contingencies... 26. Self-Management... 27. Promoting the Generality of Behavior Change... 28. Communicating the Results of Behavior Change Efforts...

-- (also includes references, glossary, and name and subject indices)

Is it possible to change one's own life and the lives of others by arranging our surroundings (environment) in a particular way? Any student of applied behavior analysis (ABA) would strongly shout out YES!

The field of applied behavior analysis examines how socially significant activities, such as language, self-care, academics, job skills, social skills, etc., can benefit from the careful arrangement of events in an individual's environment. As a graduate student, I used this comprehensive text on a daily basis. As a college professor, I now use it to teach my own courses in applied behavior analysis.

You won't find a more comprehensive introduction to the field of ABA than "The White Book." It includes a wealth of principles, ethics, research methods, empirical studies, techniques, applications, you name it. I still refer to it on a regular basis.

Happily, an updated second edition is slated to arrive in Fall, 2006. It will be another great tool in the training of future behavior analysts.

Reading this textbook one can appreciate the science in the science of human behavior. Not that the science of human behavior isn't well-served by the philosophy of behaviorism or by ongoing research within the area of the experimental analysis of behavior. But what I saw in this book is just how much progress has been made in applications and how fully the scientific method has been utilized.

"Applied Behavior Analysis" is well organized both as chapters and within chapters, so I was able to absorb the material in small chunks. There is an excellent summary presented as a numbered list (with subject headings) at the end of each chapter.

Coverage seems thorough. As an introductory text, the whole kitchen sink has not been included but at 600 pages, plenty has been included. As fitting for an introduction, there are many fine definitions. In addition to the subject index and name index, a 3-page key term index is provided. Since I find myself getting confused at times by some usages of basic terms such as "contingency", "establishing operation" and "stimulus control", the care in defintion in this textbook was helpful.

Only one section of the book wasn't of immediate interest to me: the use of graphs and baseline design in Part 3 (Evaluation and Analysis of Behavior Change). I simply read the summaries of each chapter for that part, but had no trouble following all the other parts despite skipping over the Part 3 material. Many parts such as Stimulus Control, Self Management, and a succint presentation of Schedules of Reinforcement were stimulating to read. In the midst of the book, I felt the excitement of realizing how well this field is advancing.

Discussion of ethics and a concern for clients' rights are spread in several places in the book, e.g. in the sections on time out and punishment. More, perhaps collected into a chapter of its own, wouldn't have hurt. A "doctrine of least restrictive alternative" is advised, reflecting a concern that treatment not be too intrusive. The task list for the exam for Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BACB) states more forcefully the need to "ensure that the dignity, health, and safety of one's client are fully protected at all times." Many of the techniques used in applied behavior analysis could be used unethically or ignorantly, so it would have seems prudent to advise those learning them early on of these dangers. Necessarily systematic, these techniques could easily become mechanical and inappropriate. There seems sufficient resistance to applied behavioral analysis to warrant extra attention from the start of training to these issues.

A textbook based on Skinner's "Verbal Behavior" and subsequent work by behavior analysts in that area would be welcome. It would be anoter great way to show how deeply behavior analysis can be applied and these authors would do it justice.

This book provides the best text-book style introduction to Applied Behavior Analysis there is. The writing is straight-forward and well-organized. The only thing one could wish for is a second edition, but in the foreword it states they promised their families that there woulnd't be one :) That's ok, it provides all the groundwork one needs to read and understand the literature since then. REVIEW EDIT: Amazon has placed this review, written in 2002 for the first edition, on the page with the second edition. Other reviews from the first edition, from before the second edition was published, are also here. That confusion notwithstanding, the second edition is also excellent, and serves as the great update we'd all anticipated.

The book is well organized with sufficient examples. If you want to become an applied behavior analyst, this will be the first book to be on your list.

This book is definitely a great reference book as well as an excellent text book. It is very specific and truly informational. I would recommend it to anyone thinking of going into ABA