The Developmental Systems Approach and the Analysis of Behavior.

Moore (2016) wrote a theory paper. He asked: Can behavior analysis and developmental systems live together? Both fields care about where behavior comes from. Both look at context. The paper maps the shared ground.

No clients. No trials. Just ideas. The goal is to show BCBAs they can borrow from developmental science without selling their soul.

The two worlds fit. Developmental systems sees behavior as part of a big, moving system. Behavior analysis already tracks how context shapes behavior. Same mission, different words.

So you can keep your reinforcement charts and still think like a systems theorist.

Malagodi et al. (1989) and Malagodi (1986) said the same thing earlier. They told BCBAs to zoom out and see culture as the real controller. Moore (2016) keeps the zoom-out move but swaps in developmental systems for cultural analysis.

Derenne et al. (2002) took the idea further. They showed how to study aging the same way—track one person across years, not groups at one time. S gives the green light; Adam shows the road.

Baum (2018) adds the time scale. He says behavior is a movie, not a snapshot. That matches S’s systems view: look at patterns that stretch over minutes, days, years.

Next time you write a behavior plan, draw a box around the client. Then draw a bigger box around family, school, history. Ask: What outside the skin keeps this behavior alive? You are still doing ABA—you are just using a wider lens. No new jargon required.