Parsimony: The practice of ruling out simple, logical explanations, experimentally or conceptually, before considering more complex or abstract explanations.
Philosophic Doubt: An attitude that the truthfulness and validity of all scientific theory and knowledge should be continually questioned..
Replication: (a) Repeating conditions within an experiment to determine the reliability of effects and increase internal validity. (b) Repeating whole experiments to determine the generality of findings of previous experiments to other subjects, settings, and/or behaviors.
Empiricism: The objective observation of the phenomena of interest; objective observations are “independent of the individual prejudices, tastes and private opinions of the scientist …. Results of empirical methods are objective in that they are open to anyone’s observation and do not depend on the subjective belief of the individual scientist.”
Experimentation: The basic strategy of most sciences. An experiment is a carefully conducted comparison of some measure of the phenomenon of interest (the dependent variable) under two or more different conditions in which only one factor at a time (the independent variable) differs from one condition to another.
Determinism: The assumption that the universe is a lawful and orderly place in which phenomena occur in relation to other events and not in a willy-nilly, accidental fashion
Try the following phrase to remember the six attitudes of science. Purple pelicans, don’t really exercise every day.
These original six were listed in Applied Behavior Analysis by Cooper, Heron, and Heward. If you are studying for the BACB exam you will want to know the core five philosophical assumptions underlying the science of behavior analysis. They include: selectionism, determinism, empiricism, parsimony, and pragmatism.
Selectionism: Think of natural selection in biology. Selectionism in behavior analysis operates on a similar principle: behaviors are selected by their consequences. Just as advantageous traits are selected over generations because they increase survival and reproduction, behaviors that lead to positive outcomes (reinforcement) are more likely to be repeated in the future. Conversely, behaviors that lead to negative outcomes (punishment) are less likely to occur.
Show, don’t tell: Imagine a child who cries and gets attention from their parent. If this happens repeatedly, the behavior of crying (in that specific context) is being selected by the consequence of attention.
Pragmatism: Behavior analysis is fundamentally a practical and problem-solving oriented science. The ultimate goal is to develop effective interventions that produce socially significant behavior change. The “truth” of a behavioral principle or intervention is judged by its usefulness in achieving desired outcomes.
Show, don’t tell: If a specific intervention based on reinforcement principles successfully increases a student’s engagement in classwork, then that intervention is considered “true” or effective in that context, regardless of abstract theoretical debates. The focus is on what works.
These five philosophical assumptions are deeply intertwined and provide a coherent framework for understanding and changing behavior. They steer the questions behavior analysts ask, the methods they use, and the interpretations they draw from their observations. They create a powerful and practical approach to addressing a wide range of human and animal behavior.