A functional anlysis of depression.

Abstract

Depression, like infantile autism (Ferster, 1961), appears to be an especially appropriate field for the behavioral psychologist because of the missing items of behavior that are so prominent. The behavioral style of analysis emphasizes the frequency of behavior as the primary datum, while the particular categories of behavior whose frequency is to be accounted for are sought from the clinical literature or from common experience. A behavioral approach is useful for communicating, clarifying, and making objective knowledge of human behavior that has been discovered clinically or experientially. Thus, the behavior analysis may be used to complement rather than substitute for clinical knowledge (Ferster, 1972). This approach is derived from Skinner's functional analysis of behavior, particularly in his book Science and Human Behavior (Skinner, 1957). Especially in the chapters analyzing self-control, education, religion, government and law, and social behavior, Skinner defines the major kinds of activities that characterize various performances and seeks the variables that account for and influence their frequency. Ferster has provided more details of a functional analysis of self-control (Ferster, 1962) and childhood psychosis (Ferster, 1961). The first task in a behavioral analysis is to define behavior objectively, emphasizing functional (generic) classes of performances consistent with prevailing clinical facts, the component behaviors of which can be observed, classified, and counted. Then, the basic behavioral processes can be applied to discover the kinds of circumstances that can increase and decrease the frequency of particular