ABSTRACT

Given that thoughts or emotions can only be inferred from observation of actual behaviours, many proponents of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) take little interest in hypothetical entities such as the mind or will (Gresham et al. 2001). Therefore, ABA dismisses diagnoses such as emotional disturbances, characterising them as ‘explanatory fictions’, in that children are said to behave poorly because they are emotionally disturbed, and are diagnosed as being disturbed because they behave poorly (Alberto and Troutman 2009: 17).