What is a Psychological Unit?

Abstract

This paper considers the question “What is a psychological unit?”. The ubiquity of units in daily life and in science is considered. The assumption that the individual human being or animal is the psychological unit is examined and rejected. The units represented by the data collected in operant laboratories are interpreted as a subset of the well-defined changes that individual human beings or animals can bring about. The departure of this interpretation from the traditional interpretation in terms of the behaviour of the organism is acknowledged. The paper concludes by noting the relation of the present interpretation of operant research to the problem of identifying psychological units.

O “organismo” na obra de B. F. Skinner: uma exploração contextual e quantitativa acerca de seu signficado

“…à ocorrência dos termos organism e organisms no texto escrito. Aspectos temáticos incluem argumentos em que Skinner envolvia o termo, lidos à luz de discussões sobre o organismo encontradas na literatura, como por exemplo "concepção morfológica de organismo" (Palmer, 2004;Tonneau, 2013a) e "lócus do comportamento" (Hineline, 1992;Lee, 1992Lee, , 1994Lee, , 1995Lee, , 1999Roche & Barnes, 1997). Assim, sem entrar em contato com os textos a partir de categorias criadas a priori, a própria repetição de aspectos contextuais (adjetivos antecedentes e verbos subsequentes) e temáticos (argumentos de Skinner à luz de discussões da literatura) subsidiaram a construção das categorias no decorrer da própria leitura.…”

“…Além disso, surgem novas indagações quanto ao que se qualifica como um organismo "psicológico", isto é, organismo que se comporta (Matthews, 1985), diante da literatura sobre o comportamento de organismos acerebrais (Gagliano, Renton, Depczinsky, & Mancuso, 2014), de células neuronais (Stein, Xue, & Belluzi, 1994), e de robôs inorgânicos (Burgos, 2018). Nesses casos, poderia a fronteira epidérmica servir para delimitar aquilo que está se comportando -o "organismo" -do ambiente, ou o fenômeno comportamental deveria ser transdermal (Lee, 1981(Lee, , 1985(Lee, , 1992(Lee, , 1994(Lee, , 1995(Lee, , 1999? Enfim, um termo que foi importado da fisiologia (Danziger, 1997) sem ser propriamente definido carrega consigo premissas não avaliadas que podem influenciar a própria concepção do objeto de estudo central da análise do comportamento.…”

BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS AND ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. A REVIEW OF HARRY HEFT'SECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN CONTEXT

“…Whereas an unbiased observer can see plainly enough that ''The bee is laying by honey in its home.'' (p. 77; see Moore, 1983; on Holt and teleological behaviorism, see Tonneau, 2008, on Holt, 1915a For Holt, behavior was an ''action-unit'' bounded by an initiation and a cessation that defined an achievement (e.g., laying by honey; see Lee, 1995Lee, , 1998.…”

“…The systems are alike in their nonmediational and nonrepresentational accounts of the relations between organisms and their environments; in their opposition to physiological reductionism; and in their molar perspectives on behavior. More subtle affinities may also be found in their forms of phenomenology (e.g., Giorgi, 1970;Merleau-Ponty, 1962; see also Day, 1969b;Delprato, 2006;Giorgi, 1975;Kvale & Grenness, 1967); appreciation of developmental systems theory (e.g., Moore, 2001;Oyama, 2000; see also Lickliter, 2000;Midgley & Morris, 1992;Schneider, 2007); focus on action as their units of analysis (i.e., on what gets done or accomplished; see Lee, 1995Lee, , 1998; and a systems or integrated-field perspective (see Delprato, 1987;Midgley & Morris, 1988;Timberlake, 1993).…”