Behavior Therapy and Behavior Science
Many people, when they speak of behavioral science, are actually thinking about behavior therapy. There is an important difference. A science of behavior is the analysis and empirical investigation of behavior, either human or animal. This analysis establishes the scientific principles of behavior. Behavior therapy is the application of those principles to specific problems manifested in human or animal behavior as these organisms interact with their environments and develop. Both fields, behavior science and behavior therapy, are developed through research. The research of behavior science is considered the more basic although the two fields interact through their research. For example, research in behavior therapy may reveal results that are inconsistent with some of the basic principles of behavior science. Thus, behavior science would have to explain this inconsistency or reconceptualize its own results in the light of those found in behavior therapy. Thus, behavior therapy is not behavior science although the two are closely related.
Importance of the Distinction
The distinction between behavior science and behavior therapy is related to the question: What is the definition of behavioral psychology. It is important for understanding the knowledge basis of behavior therapy. First, this distinction establishes the scientific basis of behavior therapy. Behavior therapy, as developed by scientific research, is scientific. It is not based in cultural practices or ideation. This provides an important distinction between behavior therapies developed from scientific research and behavior therapies developed from cultural practices and ideation. While aspects of cultural practices may be integrated into scientific, behavior therapy, as meditation has been integrated, those practices must be subjected to examination based upon the scientific method. Thus, the cultural practices and ideation are brought within the conceptualizations of behavioral science. Their explanations must conform to those conceptualizations with the concomitant conceptual and experimental constraints.
The constraints imposed upon scientific, behavioral therapy from behavioral science are severe. Research in behavioral therapy cannot develop independent or in opposition to basic behavioral science. Thus, behavior therapy, if it is to be considered scientific, must conform to this relationship. This distinction is important, because behavior science did not emerge in history fully conceptualized or independent. Behavior science emerged from and among cultural practices and the development of other areas of thought. At least in its early phases, behavior science depended upon other areas of thought for its explication. To develop as a science, behavioral science must distinguish itself from these cultural practices and ideations.
A Functional Critique
Behavioral Science provides a functional critique of Behavioral Therapy in addition to the research created by Behavioral Therapy, itself. The principles behind the behavioral therapies will have been established in the research of Behavioral Science. In building the science, the principles established will have been empirically analyzed and logically critiqued in relation to a broader philosophy of psychology than that applied by Behavioral Therapy. This broader purview offered by Behavioral Science will create a more integrated and unified foundation for application of the scientific principles to the natural environment than can be offered by a behavioral therapy perspective. This is the fundamental relationship between a basic and applied science.
A Technology Versus A Science
Because it is the application of the basic principles of behavior, Behavior Therapy is a technology. It’s purpose is not to understand but to apply, not to explain but to solve problems. A technology is constrained by the functional needs of the society in which it exists. The construction of a science is driven by human curiosity. The uniquely human need to understand itself. The need to solve it’s problems of survival and living is another human need exhibited by few other animals. One need produces a science and the other a technology. While these two basic needs are separate, they are developed within the context of one another. There is a catalytic interaction between their developments. Although the division described above is theoretical, it provides one way of describing the principles and practices of the thing we call Behavior Analysis.