The (no) place of the reflex in the causal mode selection by consequences of Skinner

Authors

  • Marcus Bentes de Carvalho-Neto Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA
  • Thais Maria Monteiro Guimarães Núcleo de Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento Universidade Federal do Pará
  • Alejandra Rodríguez Sarmiento Núcleo de Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento Universidade Federal do Pará
  • Monalisa de Fátima Freitas Carneiro Leão

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v20i3.47705

Keywords:

Selection by consequences, selectionism, mechanism, behavior and reflex conditioning, Skinner

Abstract

Skinner in 1 981 proposed a general causal mode to explain the behavior involving two basic and
complementary processes: variation and selection. Sometimes selectionism is presented as a substitute
mechanism inside and outside the behavioral level. However, there is a point of tension in this
interpretation: the behavior/conditioning reflex. This kind of behavior and learning would be explained
by laws compatible with the mechanism, the laws of reflex, not involving variation and selection. To
what extent, then, selecting the consequences would be a general explanatory so even if it would apply to
all cases of behavior? An alternative interpretation is offered on the nature and scope of Skinnerian
selectionism.

Author Biography

Marcus Bentes de Carvalho-Neto, Universidade Federal do Pará, Belém, PA

Núcleo de Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Teoria e Pesquisa do Comportamento

Universidade Federal do Pará

Downloads

Published

2017-01-23

How to Cite

Carvalho-Neto, M. B. de, Monteiro Guimarães, T. M., Sarmiento, A. R., & Freitas Carneiro Leão, M. de F. (2017). The (no) place of the reflex in the causal mode selection by consequences of Skinner. Interação Em Psicologia, 20(3). https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v20i3.47705

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 3 (2016)

Section

Seção especial

License

The approval of articles implies the immediate acceptance, with no imposition, that the journal Interação em Psicologia will have the exclusivity of the first publication of the article. The authors will, notwithstanding, keep the copyrights for future publications. In case of republication of the articles in other media, it is demanded the mention to the first publication in the journal Interação em Psicologia. The authors also authorize their articles to be available in all the indexes of which the journal is included. 

The Editorial Board is not responsible for the concepts or statements expressed in the published works, which are the sole responsibility of their authors.

The journal Interação em Psicologia offers immediate open access to all its content, following the rationale that offering gratuitous scientific knowledge to the public promotes the democracy of knowledge and published works tend to produce higher impact. The published articles in the journal are available under the Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). According to this license, the access, distribution, reusing of the articles for non-commercial sources are allowed, provided that the authors and the source is referenced. When submitting articles to the journal Interação em Psicologia, authors agree with making their texts legally available based on this license.