**6. Solution analysis**

The solution analysis outlines the elements considered for relevant decision-making to change behavior. This step was raised based on breaking with the traditional system where predetermined problems are classified and thus solutions. From this perspective, each studied interaction is considered unique and if it is necessary to intervene to look for a change, all of the previously analyzed elements must be considered to reach an "ideal" solution. Possible solutions or changes in the behavior of interest are raised to begin with. After this, an analysis of each one of the outlined solutions is carried out considering different criteria, for example, their feasibility, the possible short-, medium- and long-term effects, the necessary and available resources, and the possible emotional cost, among others. When a solution analysis is performed in clinical cases, the user must actively participate in this stage. Once the analysis has been carried out, the most appropriate solution or solutions are selected and are identified in **Table 1**.

The horizontal axis in **Table 1** represents the macrocontingential dimension where there are two options: macrocontingential maintenance or macrocontingential change. If the detected problem is macrocontingential, in other words, when the decisive factor is a lack of correspondence between a person's behavior and his/her reference group's behavior, the macrocontingential change column is chosen; however, when the problem does not have anything to do with a moral evaluation, then the macrocontingential maintenance column is chosen. It is worth mentioning that the type of microcontingential change is specified in the lines and even though a change may be required to achieve correspondence between a person's and his/her group's assessment practices, or of a member of his/her group, this cannot be done without altering any aspect in the microcontingential order. The main direction of the chosen solution is selected in the table.

As indicated, the specific type of foreseen change as a solution is found in the lines.



**Table 1.** Solution analysis table.

**b.** Situation in which the current microcontingency started: it refers to how the studied inter-

**c.** Mediating history of behavior: if the studied behavior has had a mediating function/ role in the person's past, in other words, if his/her behavior has regulated other people's

**d.** Dispositional functions in significant people's past in the present microcontingency: In this part we analyze if the people considered as significant in the interaction in the past have exhibited behaviors that regulate states of mind, shocks, tendencies, or those that have sponsored the studied person's behavior in different situations to the one studied.

The non-problematic behavior that enables the identification of skills, non-problematic con-

**a.** Non-problematic exercise of the problem behavior: the situation where the problem behavior is not assessed as such according to the social circumstances and places, the people involved and their role/function, and finally, other behavior morphologies of the user in

**b.** Functionality of behaviors in said contexts: this functionality is evaluated in three ways: (1) as mediating of other people's or the user's own behavior, (2) possible dispositional functionality of behavior, and (3) effectiveness of the problem behavior in these contexts

**c.** Availability of potentially functional non-problematic responses in the present microcontingency: here, non-problematic microcontingential relationships, appropriate behavior morphologies in similar contingencies which are assessed as problematic, and user's nonproblematic behavior morphologies in relationships with significant people of the prob-

From this step on, the following two are the strictly technological components of the contingential analysis and are used when an intervention has to be done and there is an assessed problematic behavior. These two steps are used more in professional fields such as the clinical or health fields. In other professional fields analytical steps are regularly used. In case changes are required in other professional fields, the technological components are carried out adjusting to the nature of the interaction that will be changed (individual/group and type of profes-

The solution analysis outlines the elements considered for relevant decision-making to change behavior. This step was raised based on breaking with the traditional system where

action originated in the microcontingential system and how it evolved.

texts, and resources must also be evaluated in the contingential analysis:

behavior.

32 Behavior Analysis

**5.2. Competencies evaluation**

these situations that must be evaluated.

in which it is not assessed as a problem.

lem microcontingency or similar are identified.

sional duties that will be performed, among others).

**6. Solution analysis**

• New microcontingencies options: in this option the user leaves the problem microcontingency and moves on to a new one.

**7.2. Types of procedure in terms of its effects**

other significant people's behavior in relationships.

assessment beliefs of the reference group itself [1].

through the user's behavior.

tional or certain effects.

**7.3. Counselor's roles**

iors throughout the sessions:

previously.

forcing function.

For this second set of criteria the expected effect after the application of a given technique or

Contingential Analysis: Interbehavioral Methodology for the Applied Field

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74464

35

**a.** Procedures to change dispositions are those aimed at changing properties of objects or environmental aspects, inclinations, propensities, tendencies, or moving available skills

**b.** Procedures to change other people's behavior are those aimed at changing the function of

**c.** Procedures to change one's own behavior imply changing the function of the user's behavior by either creating or changing skills, establishing behaviors that change disposi-

**d.** The procedures to change macrocontingential practices have the effect of changing beliefs or assessment practices to adjust to those of their reference group or change practices or

Great importance is placed on the psychologist-user relationship in contingential analysis. The counselor or psychologist's behavior is deemed to have effects on user's behavior when he/she is in his/her environment and that this is something that cannot be overlooked. Other authors have already talked about this relationship; for example, Ruiz-Sancho [13] performed an analysis of counselor-user language interactions because they consider that the counselor or psychologist's verbalizations shape the user's behavior and in turn, the user's verbalizations shape the counselor's behavior [14]. They conducted research in the clinical context using recordings of clinical sessions and identified four functionally different verbal behav-

**1.** Evaluate: identify the problem behavior and understand the organism's interaction as a

**2.** Explain: present the hypothesis on the learning processes that explain the acquisition and

**3.** Treat: explain the treatment plan based on the functional analysis that has been explained

Functionally speaking, these authors claim that evaluating has a discriminatory function, explaining an informative function, treating an instructional function, and maintaining a rein-

On the other hand, the authors mention that every type of counselor's/psychologist's verbal

**4.** Maintain: maintain the behavioral changes achieved during the therapy session.

behavior leads to a type of user's verbal behavior. They classified them in three:

whole in its physical-chemical, biological, and social environment.

maintenance of the problem behavior to the client.

procedure must be taken into account. Four categories are proposed for this:

• Other functional options of the same behavior: they consist of the modification of the microcontingency, taking advantage of the user's resources.

This step of the methodology gives rise to setting specific intervention objectives.
