Setting Event

Setting events were first conceptualized in interbehavioral psychology in the 1950s as contextual factors that influence the antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) relationship. During the past 20 years, applied behavior analysts have accelerated investigations of these potentially powerful environmental influences on behavior. Researchers described setting events as more global in nature than the discrete ABC components and capable of influencing how individuals respond to an antecedent stimulus at a given point in time by momentarily changing the value of the consequence stimulus. For example, a setting event such as illness may influence a student's work behavior by changing the value of work completion as the reinforcing stimulus. When individuals are ill, work completion, typically a reinforcing consequence stimulus, becomes aversive, and task abandonment, or escape, becomes reinforcing. ...