 Dr. Linda J. Parrott Hayes received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Manitoba, and her Master’s and doctoral degrees from Western Michigan University. Dr. Hayes was a member of the behavior analysis faculty at West Virginia University while completing her doctorate, after which she took a position at Saint Mary’s University in Canada. She founded the campus-based and satellite Programs in Behavior Analysis at the University of Nevada, Reno on a self-capitalization model. Dr. Hayes has participated in the governance of the Association for Behavior Analysis throughout her career, serving as Coordinator of the Education Board, founder and Director of the Council of Graduate Programs in Behavior Analysis, and multiple terms as a member of the Executive Council, including its President. She is actively involved in efforts to promote the development of behavior analysis around the world. Dr. Hayes is best known for her work in behavior theory and philosophy. |
| Abstract: Scientific communities rarely embrace new formulations of their subject matters or theories concerning them with enthusiasm. On the contrary, new theories are frequently and sometimes forcefully resisted, the latter peculiar to those touching upon issues of so fundamental a sort as to threaten venerable scientific traditions. Historians note that the eventual adoption of new formulations of events in the sciences is typically preceded by their having first suffered through successive stages of being ignored, dismissed, reviled, ridiculed, distorted, and exploited. Such has been the fate of interbehavioral psychology in the most powerful sector of the behavior analytic community. While it is the case that certain aspects of the behavior analytic position are incompatible with Kantors formulation of psychological events, the threat posed by the adoption of the latter is not as great as might be imagined. Indeed, it is only the most ill-formed and incoherent aspects of the former that are threatened by interbehavioral logic. More importantly, unless behavior analysis strives toward greater scientific systemization, problems of this sort will inevitably resurge, putting the validity and significance of this enterprise at continued risk. Adequate systemization is exemplified in interbehavioral psychology. For these and related reasons, certain assurances and clarifications pertaining to Kantors views are warranted. In addition, many members of the behavior analytic community are wholly unaware of Kantors enormous contribution to the development of a natural philosophy and science of behavior. My aim in this address, thereby, is also to provide an overview of interbehavioral psychology and the philosophy of interbehaviorism for this audience. |