Applied Behavior Analysis To Modify Couple's Behavioral Patterns: A Program Design

Marriage family therapy and applied behavior analysis are two separate fields that have the potential to be joined together to introduce a cutting edge way of exploring and treating couples who are experience marital distresses. This dissertation explores both fields while highlighting the various ways they are used to provide treatment across settings, individuals, and presenting problems. Based on previous research there was a clear gap in the field of applied behavior analysis that displays the potential utilization to manage couples martial presenting problems. In attempts to explore the promise of applied behavior analysis to treat couples presenting problem of arguing; this project consisted of the development of a couples manual based on the principles of applied behavior analysis, the development of two measurement tools to determine the effectiveness of the manual, and the evaluation of the manual by expert marriage family therapists and board certified behavior analysts. Based on the data analysis of feedback from both licensed marriage family therapists and board certified behavior analysts, the purposed manual shows promise that the couple manual could be an effective tool for couples treatment and suggests further research be completed to test the manual using human subjects in the future.