Understanding Behavior Disorders: A Contemporary Behavioral Perspective

Behavior analysis today has moved far beyond the simple response-reward conditioning of the past. While still embracing these concepts, modern behavior analysis recognizes that traditional behavioral processes can give rise to other behaviors (e.g., rule governance, relational framing) that can actually alter the way these processes function―a sort of recursive, behavior-modifying-behavior. Traditional behavioral conceptualizations of various behavioral disorders failed to incorporate these function-altering behavioral processes, and as a result, non-behavior analytic models of these disorders were developed to account for the oversights. Behavior analytic theory came to be regarded as too narrow to account for the complexities involved in human pathology. But recent research on the behavior analysis of human language and cognition (e.g., Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, & Roche, 2001) have enabled behavior analysis to regain its theoretical foothold in the description of behavior disorders.

This book provides a working and testable theory of common behavior disorders from a modern behavioral perspective. It covers concepts such as rule-governance, experiential avoidance, and relational framing in addition to traditional behavioral concepts such as reinforcement, punishment, establishing operations, and stimulus control. Most of the theories presented in the book reach beyond the current body of behavior analytic research because most behavior disorders have not been examined through a modern behavior analytic perspective. But the authors describe their behavior analytic model and search for the nonbehavioral research that is consistent with their theory. Throughout, the book presents a logical, plausible, and testable theory that is consistent with modern behavior analytic thinking.

Douglas W. Woods, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Western Michigan University in 1999. He is a recognized expert in the assessment and treatment of tic disorders and trichotillomania and is currently associate professor and director of clinical training in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Woods has authored or coauthored more than ninety papers and chapters and has edited two book describing behavioral interventions for tic disorders, trichotillomania, and other repetitive behavior problems. He has presented his work nationally and internationally with over 100 conference presentations and numerous invited talks. Woods is a founding member of the Tourette Syndrome Association’s (TSA) Behavioral Sciences Consortium, is a member of TSA’s Medical Advisory Board, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Trichotillomania Learning Center. He has been funded by the TSA Grants program, Trichotillomania Learning Center Grants program, and is currently funded by the NIH as part of two separate multisite research projects investigating the efficacy of behavior therapy for children and adults with Tourette Syndrome.

Jonathan W. Kanter, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington in 2002, and then moved to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he spent several years collaborating closely with members of the Black, Latinx, and Muslim communities on issues of social and political activism (including police brutality and voter rights), racism and discrimination, and culturally appropriate treatments of depression. In 2013, Kanter came to the University of Washington to direct the Center for the Science of Social Connection (CSSC), where he approaches projects with a contextual behavioral science (CBS) model that integrates disciplines—including evolution science, neuroscience, anthropology, and psychology—within a behavioral science foundation. Kanter is regularly invited to give talks and workshops nationally and internationally on topics of interest to the Center, including anti-racism workshops, workshops for therapists on how to improve psychotherapy relationships and help clients with relational problems, and culturally tailored behavioral treatments for depression.