O comportamento é determinado? O que pensam os analistas do comportamento brasileiros
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[1] Universidade Federal do Paraná
Universidade Federal do Paraná
Brasil
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- Localización: Acta comportamentalia: revista latina de análisis del comportamiento, ISSN 0188-8145, Vol. 30, Nº. 2, 2022, págs. 323-339
- Idioma: portugués
- Títulos paralelos:
- Is behavior determined? What Brazilian behavior analysts think
- Enlaces
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Resumen
- English
Determinism may be generally defined as the assumption that every behavioral event is determined by past events. The specialized literature suggests that most radical behaviorists tend to identify this philosophy as deterministic – although some radical behaviorists argue for an indeterministic stance as more coherent and advantageous. This literature, however, does not necessarily represent the positions of the wider community of professionals that self-identifies as radical behaviorists and behavior analysts regarding this issue. This study aimed to characterize the views of this community about determinism applied to behavior as a subject matter.
Through an online form, we analyzed the level of agreement of a sample of Brazilian professionals that identified themselves as radical behaviorists and behavior analysts (n=250) in relation to three statements about determinism, namely: (1):
“I believe that the present behavior of an organism, human or nonhuman, is completely determined by past variables”; (2) “I believe that the use of the notion of ‘probability’ in relation to the behavior of organisms is due only to methodological constraints (considering that it’s not possible for the analyst to identify all variables that determine behavior) and not to the probabilistic nature of behavior itself”; (3) “I believe that what a behavior analyst thinks about the issue of behavioral determinacy or indeterminacy doesn’t make a difference to its practice”. The analysis of the results suggests (1) a clear tendency towards determinism (differentiating this community from the lay public, which tends to reject determinism); (2) a relatively uniform distribution of positions about the functions of the concept of probability (epistemological only or also ontological), with a discrete tendency towards the epistemological only function; (3) a significant agreement about the relevance of the stance about behavioral determinism or indeterminism to the practice of behavior analysts. We discuss the methodological limitations of the study, and also the status of “belief” in our analysis. We also warn about the importance of avoiding unwarranted assumptions derived from reported stances about behavioral determinism, such as (a) deducing unreported verbal justifications for these stances; (b) predicting logical or empirical consequences from them. Finally, we urge radical behaviorists to further interact with other philosophical and scientific traditions that have long been investigating several issues regarding determinism.
- português
A literatura especializada sugere que os behavioristas radicais tendem, em sua maioria, a identificar esta filosofia como determinista – embora alguns behavioristas radicais defendam uma postura indeterminista como mais coerente e vantajosa.
Essa literatura, porém, não representa necessariamente o posicionamento da comunidade mais ampla de profissionais que se identificam com o Behaviorismo Radical e a Análise do Comportamento. O presente estudo buscou caracterizar o posicionamento desta comunidade em relação ao determinismo aplicado ao comportamento.
Por meio de um formulário online, analisamos o grau de concordância de uma amostra de profissionais brasileiros que se identificaram como behavioristas radicais e analistas do comportamento (n=250) em relação a três enunciados sobre o determinismo. A análise dos resultados sugere (1) uma clara tendência favorável ao determinismo (diferenciando esta comunidade do público leigo, que tende a rejeitar o determinismo); (2) uma distribuição relativamente uniforme de posicionamentos sobre as funções do conceito de probabilidade (apenas epistemológica ou também ontológica), com uma discreta tendência em direção à função apenas epistemológica; (3) uma concordância expressiva sobre a relevância do posicionamento sobre a questão da determinação ou indeterminação do comportamento para a prática dos analistas do comportamento.
- English
