ABC Analysis of Behavior

Let’s break the ABC analysis down. Operant learning says we can change behavior by first examining antecedents, or what happens before the behavior. You might already do this informally. For example, your student Mia may tantrum every time Pam walks into the door. You might begin thinking, “Wow, this behavior only occurs when Pam walks into the door.” You’ve already begun to link an antecedent (Pam walking in the door) with the behavior (Mia having a tantrum).

Our second step in operant learning is to identify the behavior itself. This sounds easy but can really be quite difficult. A lot of the difficulty hinges on how the behavior is described (we’ll get to that in a later lesson). We need to know exactly what behavior is elicited. If we’re interested in Mia’s tantrums, we need to describe exactly what a tantrum does and does not look like. For example, in Mia’s case, she throws herself down on the floor, she screams, and hits her head with her fists.

The third variable in operant learning is examining the consequences or what happens after the behavior. A consequence is anything that follows the behavior. It can be something that will increase the behavior we want to see (reinforcing someone for sitting in his/her seat) or something that will decrease the behavior (putting Mia’s behavior of tantruming on extinction).