There are many different methods and philosophies of dealing with “inappropriate,” “abnormal,” or “undesirable”
behavior. Behavior modification is one of these. It is different from other methods and philosophies in that it
focuses only on observable, describable, and measurable behaviors, as opposed, for example, to psychoanalytic
theory which focuses on finding the underlying cause (i.e., childhood trauma) of behavior. Behavior modification,
based on behaviorist principles, operates on the following tenets:
1) Behavior is controlled by antecedents, events which occur before a