BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS NEEDS A SHOCK OF BEHAVIORISM

Abstract

The text is a reflection on the gap between the basic and applied areas for those who teach and practice as behavior analysts. Among factors that contribute to this gap are the reduction of activities in the laboratory, impoverishing the training of researchers and professionals in their functional analyzes; the fallacious dispute between molar and molecular analyzes that is leading to the rejection of basic terminology of behavior analysis; the high demand for treatment of autism and ADHD and the consequent increase in the offer of employment; and the diagnosis increasingly extended, pressured by the pharmaceutical industry. The demand for therapy of results can lead to therapeutic miscellaneous, which does not characterize the applied behavioral analysis. Many professionals who call themselves behavior analysts have abandoned functional analysis or do so superficially or incompletely. Separatist discussions that reflect struggles for power should be replaced by integration strategies between the basic and applied areas and improvement of training to maintain rigorous behavioral analysis and fidelity to behaviorism. Key words: behavioral analysis, basic research, applied research, training in behavioral analysis