MECHANISM, CONTEXTUALISM, AND THE BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Among the content domains of behavior analysis (e.g., social, emetional, cognitive), the analysis of development is among the most vigorous and distinctive, in part, because it is aligned with the contextualistic worldview and is opposed te rnechanism. This paper briefly reviews the emergence of centextualism in philosophy and psychology, and then in the behavior analysis of develeprnent. It describes characteristics of the latter that make it centextualistic, not mechanistic, both with respect te behavior as its subjeCt matter and the behavier of its scientists. The paper cencludes by suggesting that, in being centextualistic, the behavier analysis of development is at forefront of the discipline more generally.