Applied Behavioral Analysis, What is it?

Many years ago, when I was getting my Social Work degree, I took classes in behavior modification. Most people have an idea what behavior modification is, since it is introduced in psychology 101 as classical or operant conditioning.  This is the modification of behavior through the observable relationship of the behavior and the environment.

The basis of this is the Antecedent, the Behavior and the Consequence or  A  +  B  =  C
The antecedent is what happens before the behavior, the consequence is what happens after the behavior. The behaviorist has some control over these two variants, but should not consider they have control over the behavior itself.

 Let's look at some examples.
Example 1: 
Antecedent:
A small child goes to the store with their parent. They walk down the candy aisle.
Behavior:
The child sees a candy bar they want and begins to scream for the candy bar.
Consequence:
The parent gives the candy bar to the child.

Example 2:

Antecedent:
A small child goes to the store with their parent.They walk down the candy aisle.
Behavior:
The child sees a candy bar they want and begins to scream for the candy bar.
Consequence:
The parent  makes sure the child is in a safe place, waits for the child to stop screaming, does not make eye contact to avoid giving attention to the behavior of screaming, then when the child stops screaming, calmly walks the child away and explains that there will be no candy bar for rewarded for screaming.

In each case, the parent has reinforced a behavior through the consequence and increased the likelihood that a behavior will increase the next time they go to the store.  In example one, the consequence given will increase the likelihood that the child will scream for a candy bar the next time and in example 2 the consequence will increase the likelihood the child will not scream.

Example 3:
Antecedent:
A small child goes to the store with their parent. The parent avoids the  candy aisle.
Behavior:
The child does not see the candy bar they wanted last time and does not scream.
Consequence:
The parent praises the child for having a quiet voice in the store.

In this example, the parent controlled the antecedent by avoiding the trigger that set off the child the last time they were in the store. By controlling the trigger, or antecedent, they decreased the likelihood the behavior would be repeated. They reinforced the behavior they desired in the consequence by giving praise.

This is how Applied Behavioral analysis works.

The behavior is owned by the child, but the antecedent and consequences and be controlled for, therefore increasing the likelihood of a better outcome.