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| International Paper Session - The Role of Private Events in a Natural Science |
| Saturday, May 26, 2007 |
| 3:00 PM–3:50 PM |
| Cunningham B |
| Area: TPC |
| Chair: Emmanuel Z. Tourinho (Universidade Federal do Para) |
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| Private Events, Behavioral Relations, and Individualism. |
| Domain: Theory |
| EMMANUEL Z. TOURINHO (Universidade Federal do Para) |
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| Abstract: Behavior analysts have addressed some traditional issues in the field of psychology, such as cognitions and emotions, with the concept of private events. Cognitive and emotional phenomena may be properly approached as behavioral relations, with varying degrees of complexity, in which covert responses and/or private stimuli may take part. A relational view of cognitions and emotions conflicts with the prevailing mentalist conceptions of man in modern societies. In the present work, it is suggested that conditions that are typical of the individualization process in modern societies explain the emission of responses in the covert form and the emission of verbal responses under the control of private stimuli (as well as the acceptance of mentalism). Among others, such conditions include: a) the dissociation of contingencies of reinforcement that maintain the behavior of individuals in daily life; b) the exposure to concurrent contingencies that increase in number exponentially (the increasing need for choice behavior); c) conflicts between immediate and delayed consequences; d) conflicts between consequences for the individual, and consequences for the group. The analysis then suggests that a better understanding of privacy may profit from a behavior-analytic interpretation for “self-control” and “autonomy”. |
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| A Discussion of Research Topics in Private Events. |
| Domain: Theory |
| CHARLES P. BUTLER (Behavior Analysis and Autism Therapies), Kendra Ortega (South Florida Family Centers, Inc.) |
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| Abstract: The amount of research into private events in radical behaviorism has been limited to date due to the fact that private events do not seem to be observable in any objective way. This paper will provide various definitions of private events from B. F. Skinner, Willard Day and others, a comparison of radical versus methodological behaviorism, methodological issues in research including public accessibility, accessibility through the verbal behavior of the subject, variables controlling the verbal behavior of reports of private events including cultural variables, demonstrating a functional relation between private events and target behaviors, and possible topics for future research. |
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