Applied behavioral analysis of societal problems: Population change, a case in point.

Abstract

The new challenge for psychologists is to assist people to behave in ways that will insure survival. New strategies must be developed that change societal problems by changing human behaviors. A major obstacle has been that problems have been defined in ways that do not facilitate their solutions. Family planning provides a good example for population psychologists have occupied themselves with building theories or identifying variables that have little implication for altering problem situations rather than in effecting changes in problem behaviors. The basic questions are what works on whom and under what conditions. Currently what appears to be missing from many family planning programs is a clear statement of the behavioral goals for a given family or program; a methodology for focusing on those factors and behaviors that will most likely have an effect on the problem behavior of a given family; a procedure for selecting an appropriate intervention strategy for a given behavior; and a strategy that can represent immediate behavioral outcomes and lead to subsequent modifications of a particular program. The applied behavior analysis strategy offers the following advantages for the family planning psychologist interested in actually changing the behavior of individuals: 1) the specific actions of the individual subject are the unit of focus; 2) the frequency and magnitude of an individuals behavior can be examined continuously during all phases of investigation; 3) the individual subject serves as his/her own control in that behaviors resulting from intervention are compared with his/her own baseline before intervention; 4) control of variables related to the problem is facilitated by immediate and ongoing feedback of the individuals performance; 5) the clinician can determine immediately the extent of relevant changes continuously during treatment and other treatment if necessary based on the data provided; and 6) applied behavior analysis observation and analysis are generally used in the settings in which the behaviors naturally occur. Necessary for the application of applied behavior analysis strategies to family planning a nd population change are the development of a training program and materials for family planning or health workers and the development of a taxonomy of relevant behaviors and contingency arrangements for a given culture and a taxonomy of behavior requisites for all existing birth control devices.

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