The Intellectual Roots of Positive Behavior Support and Their Implications for Its Development

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. Positive Behavior support (PBS) has emerged as an endeavor by researchers and practitioners, and it is in the process of defining its identity as a distinctive approach to studying and addressing important social problems. It is not clear if it is best understood as a new applied science (Carr et al., 1999), as a branch of the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) emphasizing Positive Behavior technologies (Horner et al., 1990), or as an approach to delivering social services (Wacker & Berg, 2002). In this chapter, we examine some key ideas underlying the development of PBS in the hope of helping to inform the ongoing process of defining PBS and demarcating its boundaries. We review the roots of PBS in the field of ABA and Skinnerian radical behaviorism (Skinner, 1957) and provide an account for the ethical imperative, which initially caused ABA practitioners and researchers to develop a new professional identity as practitioners of PBS. This ethical dimension is described in terms of a contemporary philosophical analysis of moral prohibitions and moral ideals (Gert, 2005). We link the emergence of new treatment components in PBS with both the historical context in which they were developed and the implicit moral rules and ideals that make them compelling. Further, we analyze a key question about the future of PBS, which centers on whether it will preserve or jettison the core components of behavioral theory (Lakatos, 1970) as PBS embraces a broader contextualism and pragmatism (Biglan & Hayes, 1995; Pepper, 1942).