AARBA

Association for Advancement
of Radical Behavior Analysis

AARBA is a scientific non-profit organization, with the headquarters in Milan, which for more than fifteen years has been involved in promoting the development and the dissemination of Scientific Psychology, in cooperation with national and international institutions in the field of university, schools, health, work and organizations.

In addition to being the Italian Chapter of ABA International (the world scientific community of the Applied Behavior Analysis), AARBA is part of the most prestigious international networks of technologists and learning psychologies (Association for Behavior Analysis and Standard Celeration Society, Organizational Behavior Management Network), and has, among its associates, executives of the Italian State and academics from various Italian and foreign universities.

The members of the Scientific Committee are the leading experts in learning methodologies in Italy. Many of them are internationally recognized in their specific areas of Education Program, Direct Instruction and Precision Teaching, both in the academic and professional world. They also carried out hundreds of scientific experiments that have been published in international journals, and wrote books on learning processes.

Members of the Association are also psychologists, professionals and experts in performance management with a preparation and specific training in the field of behavior analysis, adopting its principles in many areas from social and cognitive rehabilitation of people with autism, to the behavioral safety in workplaces.

AARBA was founded with the aim of promoting development and dissemination of the behavior analysis. To achieve this objective, it deals with the study, scientific research, updating and training in psychology and related disciplines, including the provision of contributions.

In Psychology, behavior means any action an organism performs in reaction to certain stimuli. The science of behavior, or Behaviorism, is therefore the science that studies everything concerning the behavior of one or more individuals. In the field of Behavioral Sciences, the expressions of Scientific Psychology, Behavioral Psychology, Psychology of Learning and Behavioral Analysis can be considered synonyms. These names refer to the same cultural and scientific system, which imposes, as for any other natural science, the study of variables on a parametric scale and of functional relationships between the physical phenomena.

The expression “Radical Behavior Analysis" indicates that the theories and applications supported by the Association are those based on the experimental method, inductive, typical of natural sciences. It represents a rigorous, non-compromising way of studying the relationships between the organism and the external physical environment in terms of antecedent and consequent stimulations (and nothing else!).

Behavior is the basis of our daily life. From our behavior derives the result of a job interview or a sports competition, as well as the probability of having an accident while we are driving our car. In the course of a day we express an enormous amount of behavior that we don't even notice. We assume that that's it, ignoring the fact that if we behave in a certain way rather than in another, there are some very specific reasons to do so.

The applications of the behavioral science are numerous. The fields of interest of the Behavior Analysis are all of those where behavioral prediction and control are crucial for improving the quality of life and human performance: work (productivity, quality, etc.), normal and special education, safety, deviance and crime, clinic, sport, school and research. In general, one can think of using behavioral science whenever one wants to teach or extinguish a set of behaviors in one or more individuals.

Behavior analysis is therefore a fundamental science for the people management and learning. However, it has both a relatively recent history and several obstacles to its dissemination. This is mainly due to the fact that Behavior Analysis has completely revolutionized the conventional approach to psychology. Many psychologists and psychoanalysts tend to reject (or at least snub) the principles of scientific psychology, remaining attached to a more humanistic and subjective approach. This has meant that behaviorism in Italy has always had a not very rigorous approach, undergoing and absorbing influences from psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and cognitivism. Furthermore, Italian behavioral associations tend to favor in general only the therapeutic application of scientific psychology, excluding the numerous other applications (for example the improvement on performance and behavior safety in the workplace and elsewhere).

Hence the need to establish an association of “radical" behaviorists that can be defined as “Scientific" in the Skinnerian sense. AARBA therefore intends to promote and disseminate scientific progress in the field of Behavior Analysis, giving space to any application.