Uma perspectiva analítico-comportamental do desenvolvimento

Authors

  • Henry D. Schlinger, Jr. California State University, Los Angeles

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31505/rbtcc.v20i4.1277

Keywords:

behavior analysis, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, theory, nominal fallacy, parsimony, reification

Abstract

In this article, I describe how my behavior-analytic perspective on infant and child development evolved and
what a behavior-analytic theory of development might look like. I begin by describing how my approach to
teaching child development courses changed from focusing mostly on behavior analysis to teaching critical
thinking skills that would enable students to evaluate traditional developmental research and theory and then
to find a behavior-analytic perspective more appealing. I describe the critical thinking skills I teach students,
including nominal fallacy, circular reasoning, reification, and parsimony. Throughout, I contrast a traditional
developmental approach to research and theory with a behavior-analytic approach. In particular, I note
differences between the between-subjects experimental designs used by developmental researchers and the
within-subjects experimental designs used by behavior analysts in terms of internal and external validity and
their implications for theory construction. I argue that, because behavior-analytic theory is inductively derived
from decades of experimental analysis, it is in a better position to achieve the goals of prediction, control, and
understanding and can generate successful technologies of behavior change.

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Published

2019-04-24

How to Cite

Schlinger, Jr., H. D. (2019). Uma perspectiva analítico-comportamental do desenvolvimento. Brazilian Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, 20(4), 116–131. https://doi.org/10.31505/rbtcc.v20i4.1277

Issue

Section

Artigos Conceituais