Functional Analysis of Behavior and Its Clinical Application

Abstract

Many approaches to psychology and psychiatry have tried to explain behaviors etiologically. Functional contextualism, followed by radical behaviorism, and its application functional analysis of behavior can be considered as an alternative to mainstream approaches. Functional analysis, in analyzing a particular behavior, takes into account the context in which behavior itself present and suggests that it focus on contextual factors that influence behavior in the direction of learning principles. These factors are environment in which a particular behavior occurs, internal/external stimuli, and consequences of that behavior. In this review, we will first explain the topographic analysis that focuses on the shape and features of behavior and the structural analysis that reveals the time, duration, frequency, intensity, deficit or excess, and will discuss the existing differences between these and functional analysis. Then the learning principles, habituation, respondent conditioning, operant conditioning, social learning and derived relational response will be briefly explained. And after functional analysis of behavior and its clinical examples will be focused. Taken together, these three analyzes can create an objective and useful background in clinical practice and research processes –independent of theoretical approaches.