Behavioral Inquiry

Where modern topics meet behavioral research

recent posts

    Author: Chris Sawyer, M.Ed.,BCBA

    • A Dad’s Role in ABA Therapy

      Don’t let the title fool you into thinking about this as a division. A father’s role in therapy is the same as a mother’s role in therapy, or any guardian in therapy. Responsibility, respect, love, and contribution. That should be a given. But sometimes it’s not always treated that way. A recent intake for a…

    • Beer and Behavior Analysis

      There’s been a shift in culture towards beer recently. Twenty years ago, if you saw the title “Beer and Behavior” you would absolutely expect a scathing speech of the abuses of the drink. This is not going to be that. I assume everyone reading this to be responsible. I’m interested in modern context. The beer…

    • Getting a Behavior Analyst House-Call

      Behavior Analysis is different from other psychological therapies. First, it is considered a natural science, meaning that its interventions rely in manipulation of real world variables that can be observed. This removes some of the stereotypical therapeutic long talks on a couch for viable behavior analytic therapy, but don’t sell behavior analysis short just yet.…

    • “They’re Just Tired”- The Worst Scapegoat Explanation for Behavior

      Why are they acting that way? “They’re just tired.”.  It’s one of those cliches that never goes away. It’s just so easy to use. You can use it for any situation at all to explain away patterns of maladaptive or cranky behavior. Screaming? Tired. Throwing things? Tired. Hitting their siblings? Tired. It’s the explanation that’s…

    • Behavior Analysis and Personality Psychology

      Applied Behavior Analysis and Personality Psychology at first glance have very little in common. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) comes from the behaviorist tradition of the purely observable, and Personality Psychology features variables that are often seen within the individual and outside of direct measurement. As time moves on in the field of psychology, and the…

    • Beyond Good, Evil, Freedom, and Dignity

      A comparison of concepts from B.F Skinner’s “Beyond Freedom and Dignity” and Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil”.   There was something about these two books that piqued my interest, and it was not until reading them again, together, that I saw that the similarities went beyond the titles. For those who have not been…

    • Overcoming the Fear of Failure

      This is a topic I see very often in clinical practice. Not only that, but it affects everyone at one point in their lives. When I am working on skills with my clients who are able to vocalize and express these fears, I see a pattern inherent to everyone who has ever encountered something new.…

    • Is the intelligence barrier real for occupation training?

        This post is more speculative, and an exploration into current research, than a tried and true ABA topic I usually expound on. I saw something that struck me this morning on Twitter. The claim that an individual with an IQ less than 80 could not be trained to functionally work in society. I know for…

    • Behavioral Therapy (ABA): Beyond Ethical

      This is an opinion piece which was inspired by a few sources recently, which I believe although anecdotal, has some insight from 10+ years of doing therapy, both behavior analytic and counseling. I was reading an article that came up online, one of those anti-ABA groups that search the internet selectively, for studies that support…

    • Symbols and Notation in Behavior Analysis

      Symbols and notation in behavior analytic research is fascinating. I find myself thrilled coming across the diagrams in the professional literature and getting so much from so little. A few letters, an arrow, a nice Δ (delta); it’s beautiful. If you are familiar with journals like the Behavior Analyst, The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA),…