Functional behavior analysis: what is it and what is it for?
What is functional behavior analysis used for in psychology? Let's take a look at its characteristics.
In therapy it is necessary to address the patient's behavior in a comprehensive manner. Whether it is their feelings, experiences, thoughts or beliefs, the psychologist must look for what influences the way in which the person who comes to him behaves.
Functional behavior analysis is a very useful tool for identifying the patient's behaviors. that allows the identification of the patient's behaviors, but without neglecting the context in which they occur and what is behind their occurrence. It is a fundamental analysis when planning and directing therapy or psychoeducation processes.
Let's see what this technique consists of, what it is used for and its characteristics.
What is functional behavior analysis?
People who come to therapy may present varied behaviors, originating from multiple causes.
The functional analysis of behavior allows us to organize the most important information about the patient. It takes into account the person's social relationships, his or her problem behaviors and the events that have become important in the origin and maintenance of the problem. Once this information has been compiled, the aim is to seek explanations for the problem behaviors with the intention of finding a solution.
In order to understand this tool in more depth it is necessary to explain a little above what is to be understood by behavior.. This concept includes both observable and covert behaviors of the patient. Not only the physical actions of the person are taken into account, such as excessive Smoking or drug use, but also his or her beliefs and thoughts regarding the problem.
The psychologist is not only in charge of detecting what is not adaptive in the patient. He/she must find an explanation behind why the person behaves as he/she does, relating it to events that happened to him/her before, that is, the antecedents. Thus, when performing the functional analysis of the behavior it is necessary to to find the relationships between what the person has experienced and his current behavior..
To exemplify this, let us imagine two people who are performing the same behavior: not eating at dinner time. Although both are basically behaving the same, in an analysis of this type we would not only detect this particular behavior, but also try to find out why they are doing it.
It may be the case that one of them does not eat dinner simply because she has had a big snack and is not hungry, while the other may be that she looks fat and has decided to eat less.
Schematically, the aspects fulfilled by functional behavior analysis are as follows:
- Identify antecedents and consequents of the behavior.
- To identify the variables that influence the person.
- Formulate hypotheses about the problem behavior.
- To describe the behaviors.
When carrying out an analysis of this type, two types of hypotheses can be put forward: origin hypotheses and maintenance hypotheses. The first ones try to clarify how the problematic behavior originated, taking into account the contextual elements present at the time of the emergence of the problem. The maintenance hypotheses try to explain why the behavior is still occurring today, what elements have reinforced it or why it has not yet been extinguished.
As this type of analysis works with hypotheses, it is very important for the psychologist to be rigorous and objective. In addition, as the therapy evolves, the psychologist must be rigorous and objective, as the therapy evolves, new information will come to the surface.It will therefore be necessary to rethink the problem for which the patient initially came and to reformulate the explanations that were focused on developing an intervention plan.
Characteristics
Functional analysis of behavior is a very useful tool, since it differs from a mere descriptive analysis. it differs from a mere descriptive analysis in that it has the following features:
1. It is functional
Although the first thing that is usually done is to identify and describe behaviors, this is done with a functional intent. That is to say, it is intended to gather information to explain the problem and to elaborate a therapeutic or educational action plan, and it does not study static elements, but events and actions that can be located in time.It does not study static elements, but events and actions that can be located in time.
2. It focuses on the present
Taking into account the personal background is an important aspect; however, we must focus on how the child behaves, we must focus on how the patient is behaving now..
3. It studies relationships
Functional behavior analysis is based on looking at the relationships between behavioral events (emitted by the subject) and environmental events (occurring around him/her).
Therefore, it does not focus only on the individual, it does not focus only on the individual, but sees the individual as a part of the reality interconnected with his environmentThe therapy is based on introspection, contrary to what happens with psychological research proposals based on introspection.
Of particular importance are those behaviors that interfere significantly in the well-being of the person, so it will be necessary to focus the therapy towards the resolution of these behaviors.
4. It is dynamic
Human behavior is somewhat unstable. The patient may evolve as the psychotherapy develops. In addition, it may be the case that the patient himself did not initially give all the information necessary to understand his psychological discomfort.
This is why the psychologist must be aware that the hypotheses raised at the beginning may be refuted, and he/she must rework them on the basis of the information provided by the patient.and must rework them on the basis of new information.
5. It is ideographic
Each person is different in terms of personality, behavior and experiences.
The hypotheses put forward after analyzing the behaviors can only explain the reason for the behavior of the person analyzed, given that he/she is linked to a chain of unique and unrepeatable events, which leave a mark in his/her learning history.The hypotheses raised after analyzing the behaviors can only explain the behavior of the person analyzed, given that this is linked to a chain of unique and unrepeatable events, which leave a mark in his or her learning history.
That is to say, what is discovered in one person is hardly generalizable to the rest of the population.
6. It is heuristic
Basically, this type of analysis is a schema that describes the behavior of the personIt is heuristic, through which we organize the information obtained about the person. It does not pretend to describe the human reality, only that of the patient who has come to the consultation.
7. It is hypothetical
Although the ideal would be to be able to explain precisely why the person behaves as he or she does, functional behavior analysis is still a tool that offers hypothetical explanations.
That is, what is believed to be the origin of the problem and what causes it to persist can be modified, it is not information that implies a clear and immovable causality..
Bibliographic references:
- Fuentes-Ortega, J. and Quiroga-Romero, E. (2004). The two inalienable principles of functional behavior analysis and radical behaviorism. Psicothema, 6(4), 555-562.
- Zanón, I., Matías, T., Luque, A., Moreno-Agostino, D., Aranda, E., Morales, C., ... and Márquez-González, M. (2014) Guía para la Elaboración de un Análisis Funcional del Comportamiento Humano: facultad de Psicología. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Retrieved from: http://www.uam.es/UAM/CPA.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)