Product Description

For courses of Behavior Management in Special Education.Changing behavior can be at once a challenging, perplexing, and frustrating endeavor. The challenge lies in recognizing what to do and how to do it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6754 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 800 pages

From the Publisher
Changing behavior can be at once a challenging, perplexing, and frustrating endeavor. The challenge lies in recognizing what to do and how to do it.

From the Back Cover

Applied Behavior Analysis provides a complete description of the principles and procedures needed to systematically change socially significant behavior and to understand the reasons for that change. This comprehensive text, appropriate for courses in basic principles, applications, and behavioral research methods, helps students, educators, and practitioners appreciate and begin to acquire the conceptual and technical skills necessary to foster socially adaptive behavior in diverse individuals.

The second edition includes:

• More than 1,000 citations to primary-source literature, including both classic and contemporary studies
• A glossary of more than 250 technical terms and concepts
• More than 100 graphs displaying original data from peer-reviewed research, often accompanied by detailed descriptions of the procedures used to collect the data represented
• Five new chapters written by leading scholars in behavior analysis: Negative Reinforcement (Brian Iwata and Richard Smith), Motivating Operations (Jack Michael), Functional Behavior Assessment (Nancy Neef and Stephanie Peterson), Verbal Behavior (Mark Sundberg), and Ethical Considerations for Applied Behavior Analysts (Jose Martinez-Diaz, Tom Freeman, and Matthew Normand)
• The Behavior Analyst Certification Board^® BCBA^® and BCABA^® Behavior Analyst Task List, Third Edition, specifying the minimum content all behavior analysts should master, is listed on the inside front and back covers. A chart at the beginning of each chapter identifies which items from the Task List are covered in that chapter, and an appendix lists the page numbers where the concepts, principles, or procedures related to each item appear on the Task List.

Customer Reviews

Undoubtedly, one of the bibles of ABA
I work as a behavioral consultant for children with autism and have read hundreds of ABA-related books -- good, bad, and ugly. I first came into contact with this one while getting my Masters in ABA from Columbia U. It was the foundation of several of my courses and definitely the source I return to most often in my consulting work. The book is expensive but well, well worth it. I highly recommend it. Here's a chapter list so that you can judge for yourself:

1. Definition & Characteristics of ABA... 2. Basic Concepts (behavior, respondent/operant conditioning, reinforcers, and three-term contingencies)... 3. Selecting & Defining Target Behavior... 4. Measuring & Recording Behavior... 5. Planning & Directing Observational Procedures... 6. Production & Interpretation of Graphic Data Displays... 7. Introduction to Analysis... 8. Reversal & Alternating Treatment Designs... 9. Multiple Baseline & Changing Criterion Designs... 10. Planning, Replicating & Evaluating Research in ABA... 11. Operant Reinforcement... 12. Schedules of Reinforcement... 13. Stimulus Control... 14. Behavioral Shaping... 15. Behavior Chains... 16. Imitation... 17. Extinction... 18. Decreasing Behavior with Differential Reinforcement... 19. Punishment by Contingent Presentation of a Stimulus... 20. Overcorrection... 21. Time Out from Positive Reinforcement... 22. Response Cost... 23. Contingency Contracting... 24. Token Economy... 25. Group-Oriented Contingencies... 26. Self-Management... 27. Promoting the Generality of Behavior Change... 28. Communicating the Results of Behavior Change Efforts...

-- (also includes references, glossary, and name and subject indices)

Amazing Text
This text is spectacular. This edition is a triumph. I was a bit dubious when the forward obliquely compared this book to The Beatles (The White Album), but have become more sympathetic to the perspective as I have spent more time with it. Cooper/Heron is simply the book to use in studying Applied Behavior Analysis. It's not chummy or dated like some texts of 70s (an effort to reduce the response effort of learning the material, no doubt). Instead it is complete, precise and well written. My sincere thanks to the authors. Worth twice the going price.

Years pass and still this gleams
There are a few things about this book that should be said right away. First, this is not really an introductory book to ABA, but works as a book that ties so many theories together. That means that it could be used in conjunction with many starter ABA books, allowing its reader to get a feel of just what ABA means. The book also works on both a Masters and a PhD level when it comes to conceptual decision/ debate (an oddity if I do say so myself), and covers so many things that cheaper guides seem to omit. This could mean bypassing some causal arena or not talking about something as simple as the C.A.R.R., but these tiny slips are really not so tiny when you think about them.

There are plenty of great things listed about this book in other reviews, so I'll skip the addition of chapter content and the addition of material and its praise. Instead, I'll add that this is one of the few books that can make or break you when it comes to trying to get licensure. In fact, this book has been listed as one of the top 10 preparation guides to use before testing, and that is some high praise considering how vaunted the test actually is. More than this, however, is the fact that this is a tool that can help you in real life scenarios and, truthfully, that is more important than being able to simply pass tests. In samples as heterogeneous as those seen in autism, you really need to know how to handle multiple scenarios to make a difference.

If you are looking for a navigation tool to help with the rocky waters of autism, this is a great book to acquire. It may have a price tag attached, but it proves invaluable in the long run and that matters more than anything.
Recommended for the student in all of us.