Behavioral engineering, also called applied behavior analysis, is intended to identify issues associated with the interface of technology and the human operators in a system and to generate recommended design practices that consider the strengths and limitations of the human operators.
"The behavior of the individual has been shaped according to revelations of 'good conduct' never as the result of experimental study."
Watson wrote in 1924 "Behaviorism ... holds that the subject matter of human psychology is the behavior of the human being. Behaviorism claims that consciousness is neither a definite nor a usable concept."
This approach is often used in organizational behavior management, which is behavior analysis applied to organizations and behavioral community psychology.
Behavioral engineering has been used to increase safety in organizations (see Behavior-based safety). Other areas include performance in organization and lessening problems in prison. In addition, it has had some success in social service systems, understanding the long-term effects of humans in space and developing the human landscape, understanding political behavior in organizations, and understanding how organizations function.
It has also been successful in helping individuals to set goals and manage pay systems. Behavioral engineering has also been applied to social welfare policy.
In the school system behavioral engineering has inspired two programs of behavior management based on the principles of applied behavior analysis in a social learning format. Programs were successful in reducing disruption in children with conduct disorders, as well as improving their academic achievement. The programs show good maintenance and generalization of treatment effects when the child was returned to the natural classroom. In addition, the programs were successfully replicated. Behavior analytic programs continued to function to control truancy and reduce delinquency.
The journal Behavioral Engineering was published from 1973 to 1985.
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The professional practice of behavior analysis is a domain of behavior analysis, the others being radical behaviorism, experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis. The practice of behavior analysis is the delivery of interventions to consumers that are guided by the principles of radical behaviorism and the research of both experimental and applied behavior analysis. Professional practice seeks to change specific behavior through the implementation of these principles.
Positive behavior support (PBS) uses tools from applied behaviour analysis and values of normalisation and social role valorisation theory to improve quality of life, usually in schools. PBS uses functional analysis to understand what maintains an individual's challenging behavior and how to support the individual to get these needs met in more appropriate way, instead of using 'challenging behaviours'. People's inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional; they serve a purpose for them.
Behavior modification is an early approach that used respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior. Based on methodological behaviorism, overt behavior was modified with consequences, including positive and negative reinforcement contingencies to increase desirable behavior, or administering positive and negative punishment and/or extinction to reduce problematic behavior. It also used Flooding desensitization to combat phobias.