While we did spend some time talking about the conference, we spent the majority of the episode discussing the importance of understanding the theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of Behavior Analysis at a deep level. Specifically, we touched on:
- Why these topics are essential to graduate training in Behavior Analysis.
- Distinguishing Theory and Philosophy from Concepts and
Principles.
- The distinctions between Theory and Meta-theory.
- What assumptions guide the science of behavior (and science more generally).
- Some examples of findings in the basic laboratory that have made their way into everyday practice. In this discussion, we also talk about this process happening in reverse too.
- And of course we do get in to the details about the conference itself, including how it's organized, what role this conference serves amongst the many
training opportunities that exist, and much more. In short, they make their pitch for folks to come check it out.
Lastly, one of the topics we touched on that I'd like to return to down the road is the epistemology of Behavior Analysis, and how that how knowing both how and why we know what we know, and distinguishing this from other disciplines, can help us interact more successfully with practitioners from other fields.
Lastly, for
disclosure's sake, ABAI is not sponsoring this content. However, in furthering the goal of being a transparent media outlet, I am very much open to this 😉
All kidding aside, while this might seem like an, "eat your vegetables first," or, "I swear you'll use algebra someday," type of show, I hope you come away with a broader appreciation of this topic. And I'm grateful that we have folks like Carol and Tim who can organize events like these to showcase
them.
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