STAFF BEHAVIOR AND CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR - A REPLY TO CLEGGS COMMENTARY

In her commentary on our integration of the literature on challenging behaviours and care staff behaviour (Hastings & Remington, 1994b), Cle gg (1994) discussed three main issues. Firstly, she argued that a beha viour analytic approach to challenging behaviours is 'deeply impoveris hed'. Secondly, she claimed that our analysis laid the blame for chall enging behaviours on the shoulders of care staff. Finally, she present ed our philosophical position as objectivist. In this paper, we reply to these comments by summarizing the richness and considerable potenti al of an approach to challenging behaviours based on behaviour analyti c theory. This summary serves to clarify the fact that we consider car e staff behaviour, including actions that may contribute to the develo pment and maintenance of challenging behaviours, to be under the contr ol of environmental contingencies and verbal rules that are part of th e service environment. We also describe briefly the nature of our phil osophical approach to psychological research and inquiry.