On differentiation in applied behavior analysis.
You work in one of four modes—prospector, farmer, builder, or guide—and naming it keeps your day aligned with your strengths.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The author watched how behavior analysts spend their days. He saw four clear patterns and gave each a plain name.
The paper is pure theory. No numbers, no clients, no graphs—just a map of our work lives.
What they found
Prospectors hunt for new problems to solve. Farmers grow steady caseloads. Builders craft systems. Guides teach and supervise.
Knowing your mode keeps you from chasing the wrong tasks. A farmer trying to prospect burns out fast.
How this fits with other research
Alligood et al. (2021) turns the prospector idea into a to-do list: find a mentor, join a niche group, take entry pay. The 1985 paper named the role; the 2021 paper shows the first steps.
Britton et al. (2021) gives the guide mode teeth—supervision checklists that stop ethics slips. Again, the metaphor got built into tools.
Bottini et al. (2025) uses the builder mindset inside companies. They design OBM fixes for staff burnout, showing the 1985 ‘building’ map still works forty years later.
Why it matters
Next time you feel stuck, label your mode. If you’re a farmer, stop saying yes to brand-new pilot projects. If you’re a guide, block weekly supervision prep like it’s billable. Match tasks to role and stress drops.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Distinct types of activity in the field of applied behavior analysis are noted and discussed. Four metaphorical types of activity are considered: prospecting, farming, building, and guiding. Prospecting consists of time-limited exploration of a variety of beaviors, populations, or settings. Farming consists of producing new behaviors in the same setting using independent variables provided by the researchers or normally available in the setting. Building consists of combining procedural elements to create new programs or systems or to rehabilitate aspects of existing programs. Guiding involves pointing out connections between the principles of human behavior and the problems, populations, settings, and procedures with which researchers are (or could be) working. Advantages of each sphere are noted, and benefits of this division of labor to the field as a whole are discussed.
The Behavior analyst, 1985 · doi:10.1007/BF03393146