Researching Functional Relations in Behaviour Analysis and Therapy

Abstract

Behaviour analysis and therapy is based on the investigation of functional relations between behaviour and its controlling variables. This article focuses on the description of the functional relation and methods used for its research. In particular it presents unpublished data to illustrate how the continuous measurement of independent variables aids the identification of functional relations, research into generalization (a major problem area in behaviour analysis and therapy) and the development of parametric analyses. The implications of comprehensive functional analyses are discussed.