Science and Human Behavior: a tutorial in behavior analysis

B. F. Skinner's Science and Human Behavior (1953) became the main source of my understanding of behavior during my first semester as a college professor in 1955 at Kansas University. It has continued to exert a major influence throughout my career as the basis for a completely deterministic science of behavior, as a handbook to be consulted as a first step in dealing with any issue in behavior analysis, and as a tutorial in behavioral interpretive analysis--in the use of a small number of behavioral concepts and principles to understand behavior of all degrees of complexity. I describe four general interpretive orientations or maxims that are of broad significance for behavior analysis, and also two underappreciated major theoretical contributions.     

Real Objects Can Impede Conditional Reasoning but Augmented Objects Do Not

In this study, Knauff and Johnson‐Laird's (2002) visual impedance hypothesis (i.e., mental representations with irrelevant visual detail can impede reasoning) is applied to the domain of external representations and diagrammatic reasoning. We show that the use of real objects and augmented real (AR) objects can control human interpretation and reasoning about conditionals. As participants made inferences (e.g., an invalid one from "if P then Q" to "P"), they also moved objects corresponding to premises. Participants who moved real objects made more invalid inferences than those who moved AR objects and those who did not manipulate objects (there was no significant difference between the last two groups). Our results showed that real objects impeded conditional reasoning, but AR objects did not. These findings are explained by the fact that real objects may over‐specify a single state that exists, while AR objects suggest multiple possibilities.     

The Institute on Human Values in Medicine: Its Role and Influence in the Conception and Evolution of Bioethics

For ten years, 1971–1981, the Institute onHuman Values in Medicine (IHVM) played a keyrole in the development of Bioethics as afield. We have written this history andanalysis to bring to new generations ofBioethicists information about the developmentof their field within both the humanitiesdisciplines and the health professions. Thepioneers in medical humanities and ethics cametogether with medical professionals in thedecade of the 1960s. By the 1980s Bioethics wasa fully recognized discipline. We show the rolethat IHVM programs played in defining thefield, training faculty and helping schools todevelop programs. We review the beginnings ofthe IHVM in the crucible of social andtechnological change that led to theestablishment of the IHVM's parentorganization, the Society for Health and HumanValues. We then turn to the IHVM programsthrough which Faculty members receivedfellowships to explore new crossovers betweenthe humanities and the health professions. Wehave not only described the Fellows Program asit existed in 1973–1980, but have completed asurvey of the fellows a quarter of a centuryafter they held their fellowships. We describeother IHVM programs designed to facilitate theinitiation and development of new humanitiesprograms, to explore conceptual issues betweenmedicine and five humanities fields, to conductissue driven or educational method conferencesand to advance humanities programs intograduate education through the Directors ofMedical Education.     

Examining arguments against quantitative research: “Case studies” illustrating the challenge of finding a sound philosophical basis for a human sciences approach to psychology

This article offers a close examination of critiques of quantitative research by Michell, 2011, Marecek, 2011, and Morawski (2011). One goal is to show that these three critics actually share with most mainstream quantitative researchers commitments to the Cartesian framework, even though this is not obvious because Cartesianism can appear in different guises. As a result of these commitments, the three theorists advance criticisms of mainstream quantitative research that fail to identify its key failings, put forward flawed views about how we should conduct research, and offer misguided criticisms of an approach I advocate called explicitly interpretive quantitative research. Another goal is to use the examination of the three critiques as a vehicle for clarifying the participatory perspective, a philosophical viewpoint that departs from the Cartesian framework. With regard to research methodology, the participatory perspective provides the basis for explicitly interpretive quantitative research, leads to ideas about changes we should make in how we conduct qualitative research, and treats quantitative and qualitative research as fundamentally similar because both should be pursued as interpretive modes of inquiry. I suggest that my analyses of the three critiques of quantitative research – or “case studies,” as I call these analyses – also may prove useful to researchers and theorists who want to develop a human sciences approach to other issues besides research methodology by helping them (1) recognize when lines of thinking that seem to depart from the mainstream actually represent variants of Cartesianism, and (2) consider what the participatory perspective might have to offer if they were to use it as the philosophical basis for their efforts.     

The functional theory of human values: From intentional overlook to first acknowledgement—A reply to Schwartz (2014)

Schwartz has been aware of the Functional Theory of Values for over a decade. For the first time, Schwartz (2014) acknowledges the Gouveia theory and provides considerations based on the Gouveia, Milfont, and Guerra (2014) study. In this reply we present a historical overview of the development of the theory, noting unwarranted barriers to the publication of our work. We then address his comments, focusing on the theoretical innovations of the theory and remarking that recent refinements of Schwartz’s model were already evident in the Gouveia theory. Hypotheses tested in Gouveia et al. (2014) are also re-tested and supported with European Social Survey data using the Schwartz PVQ-21. We conclude by summarizing current projects that offer further opportunities to continue the theoretical debate.     

Response to Ranganathan

This essay responds to Bharat Ranganathan's “Comment” on my essay, “The Concept of Dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (2011). Addressing key criticisms in this “Comment,” I make the following points. First, neither the idea of inherent dignity being “imparted” to humans, nor the Universal Declaration's implication—through its use of terms such as “inherent” and “inalienable”—that humans participate in transcendent reality, necessarily presuppose a Christian metaphysics. Second, a concept such as “inherent dignity” must be affirmed to be intrinsically heuristic unless we are to assume that its meaning can be completely known within the conditions of existence; but this affirmation does not render such concepts “indeterminate of sense.” Finally, Ranganathan's distinction between“weak” and “strong” senses of transcendence is untenable. If human truths beyond all contingencies are knowable (“weak” transcendence), then there must be a real dimension of meaning that transcends all contingencies (“strong” transcendence).     

人力资源实践对员工创新行为的影响：心理契约破裂的中介作用及上下级沟通的调节作用

本研究选取了影响员工创新行为的组织（人力资源管理实践）、个体（对心理契约破裂的感知）及领导因素（上下级沟通）,通过402名企业员工的问卷调查,采用有调节的中介研究设计,对人力资源实践影响员工创新行为的机制进行研究。结果发现：（1）人力资源管理实践水平与员工创新行为正相关;（2）心理契约破裂在人力资源管理实践与创新行为关系间起部分中介作用;（3）上下级沟通水平调节了心理契约破裂与创新行为的关系,也调节了心理契约破裂对人力资源实践与创新行为关系的中介作用。     

Postural control,falls and Parkinson’s disease: Are fallers more asymmetric than non-fallers?

Postural control asymmetry is an important aspect of Parkinson’s disease (PD) that may be associated with falls. The aim of this study was to compare the postural control asymmetry during postural tasks between fallers and non-fallers in people with PD and neurological healthy age-matched controls (CG). Individuals with idiopathic PD (n = 24) and CG (n = 24) were sub-divided into groups of fallers and non-fallers based on their fall history over the past year. Participants performed blocks of three 30-s trials of quiet standing with feet in a side-by-side and semi-tandem stance position. The center of pressure parameters for each limb were measured and used to calculate the symmetry index. Fallers compared to non-fallers had decreased asymmetry of vertical force in the side-by-side condition. During the tandem-front leg condition, PD non-fallers increased asymmetry of the medial-lateral velocity of sway compared to CG non-fallers. In addition, for the tandem–back leg condition, PD non-fallers increased asymmetry of total displacement and medial-lateral root mean square and mean velocity of sway compared to PD fallers. The results of the study did not support the hypothesis that PD fallers are more asymmetric than PD non-fallers. On the contrary, our results indicated that PD non-fallers had higher postural control asymmetry, especially during the more challenging (semi-tandem standing) postural task.     

Challenge your stereotypes! Human Library and its impact on prejudice in Poland

Human Library is a public event aimed at reducing stereotypes and prejudices, in the form of an interactive, contact‐based intervention. It employs the logic of a regular library yet with readers “borrowing” Living Books, which are real people representing various minority groups. Readers engage in 30‐min conversations, during which they can challenge their stereotypes and widen their scope of knowledge and understanding. This pre‐post intervention study examined the effectiveness of the Human Library (held in Wroc?aw, Poland) in reducing social distance towards Roma, Muslims, dark‐skinned, and transgender people, as well as in decreasing homonegativity. Also, we measured whether participation in the Human Library changes individual attitudes towards diverse workgroups. We found that the Human Library decreased social distance towards Muslims. Also, the more Living Books that the participants “read,” the bigger the shift in their social distance towards Muslims. Furthermore, we observed an increase in positive affective attitude towards working in diversified groups, as a result of participation in the event. The study serves as partial support for the effectiveness of the Human Library in altering one's attitude towards minority groups and diversity. The intervention is discussed as a promising but not yet entirely understood tool to improve intergroup relations.     

Law,discipline and governance based on cognitive process simulation – analysis of legal forms in the modern rights relationship

People are becoming more and more humanized in the process of understanding the law. According to the right to discipline, the law has its own core setting factors, while some limits can't reach people's desire. Therefore, the legal and illegal mode of transcending rights is very important. In order to analyze the legal form of modern rights, in this paper, the cognitive learning and memory process of human brain were simulated through the artificial neural network and the understanding of human brain structure, and the role of law, discipline and governance was reflected. In the study, the structure and algorithm of the model neural network were optimized, the memory forgetting curve mechanism that can simulate the human brain was introduced, and thus the network recognition rate was improved. And in the algorithm, the calculation of matching degree was avoided, and the computational complexity was reduced to the sample. Then the sample was compared with the SOM, ART1, and PNN algorithms. The experimental simulation results show that the recognition speed of this sample is 1.9 times faster than that of ART1, 58 times than that of SOM, and 1.5 times than that of the PNN network.