A BEHAVIOR-ANALYTIC VIEW OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH

This paper argues that a behavioral analysis of psychological health i s useful and appropriate. Such an analysis will allow us to better eva luate intervention outcomes without resorting only to the assessment o f pathological behavior, thus providing an alternative to the Diagnost ic and Statistical Manual system of conceptualizing behavior. The goal s of such an analysis are to distinguish between people and outcomes u sing each term of the three-term contingency as a dimension to conside r. A brief review of other efforts to define psychological health is p rovided. Laboratory approaches to a behavioral analysis of healthy beh avior are presented along with shortcomings in our science that impede our analysis. Finally, we present some of the functional characterist ics of psychological health that we value.