Envisioning Cultural Practices

Mattaini, Mark A.

doi:10.1007/bf03393168

Cited by 29 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Mattaini (1996) defined the cultural practice as "an operant transmitted (and often maintained) by a culture"; we include interlocked operants in our view on what constitutes a cultural practice (Skinner, 1953). If the measure of a practice is the occurrence of operants and interlocked operants over time; the main datum of a cultural analysis is the frequency with which members of a given group emit a given practice (Mattaini, 1996).…”

Section: Cultural Analysis Of Taggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ethnographic Study of Tagging Cultures

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tagging is a kind of graffiti that involves writing one's name using markers or spray paints. In Brazil, the tagging behavior has spread all over the country and especially in the big cities. Aspects of the culture deserve careful attention by behavioral scientists. This article describes possible variables controlling the behavior of members of tagging cultures of Brazil, based on a behavior analytic framework. We performed an ethnographic study in which the researcher accompanied the taggers in all their normal activities as a participant observer of their culture; in addition, he conducted interviews. Our findings identified at least four different properties of the cultural practices: (i) The transmission of symbolic communication characterizing the cultural unit as distinguished from the rest of society. (ii) The shaping of increasingly sophisticated expression and artistic proficiency. (iii) The high visibility-high risk-high impact paradox. (iv) The hierarchical organization and status distribution. Having identified these cultural properties and the related behaviors, we discuss the contribution of a behavior analytic conceptual framework both for the purpose of tracing the possible contingencies of reinforcement and to suggest possible strategies for intervention that could result in alternative prosocial behaviors to replace tagging.

show abstract

Section: Cultural Analysis Of Taggingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Ethnographic Study of Tagging Cultures

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Skinner (1987) defined culture as "the contingencies of reinforcement maintained by a group" (p. 74), and identified cultural practices as a key unit of analysis (cf. Mattaini, 1996). In this review, we emphasize approaches that explicitly aim for collective changes in cultural practices within interlocking social networks, within cultures in Skinner's sense, which include organizations, families, peer groups, and often larger community networks as well.…”

Section: Effective Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral Strategies for Constructing Nonviolent Cultures With Youth

Mattaini¹,

McGuire

2006

Behav Modif

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Youth violence is widely recognized as a critical social issue in the United States, and many approaches to prevention have been developed in recent years. Emerging research suggests that only approaches that are deeply embedded in cultural, community, and organizational contexts are likely to be powerful enough to have a meaningful collective impact. No programs of this kind that are also truly practical and socially valid have yet reached a level where they can be regarded as well established, but data are beginning to appear that can guide community efforts. In this review, two classes of behavioral programming that appear promising as partial solutions to this need are identified: universal skills training and ecological strategies that focus on interlocking cultural practices. Progressive refinements in both are appearing through programs of developmental research. This paper reviews the state of the science in these efforts.

show abstract

“…Ultimately, the emergence and maintenance of such repertoires, or double visions, will relate back to the metacontingencies that are operative within organizations that select for them. Behavior analysts who work within organizations including education, industry, and the military are in a unique position to affect relevant cultural practices beyond earlier efforts at simple consciousness raising with the tools of cultural analysis (Biglan, 1988;Glenn, 1985Glenn, , 1988Glenn & Malagodi, 1991;Malagodi & Jackson, 1989;Mattaini, 1996).…”

Section: Feminist Praxismentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal agency in feminist theory: Evicting the illusive dweller

Ruiz

1998

BEHAV ANALYST

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The growing impact of feminist scholarship, activism, and politics would benefit substantially from input by radical behaviorists. The feminist community, broadly defined, and radical behaviorists share interesting commonalities that suggest a potentially fruitful alliance. There are, however, points of divergence that must be addressed; most prominently, the construct of personal agency. A behavioral reconstruction of personal agency is offered to deal with the invisible contingencies leading to gender-asymmetric interpretive repertoires. The benefits of a mutually informing fusion are discussed.Key words: feminist theory, gender, person-situation dualism, agency, invisible contingencies, interpretive repertoires, verbal communitiesIn her book Mismeasure of Woman, Carol Tavris (1992) documents the often-cited work of Samuel Cartwright, a noted American physician who in the early 1 800s studied and described a mental illness that was prevalent among slaves. He named this condition Drapetomania. The interesting thing about this condition was that it was diagnosed by a single symptom, namely, the uncontrollable tendency to run away from slavery (pp. 176-177). Could we write fiction to be this interesting? Alas, Cartwright pathologized the reasonable response of the slave, and in so doing, left the institution of slavery unexamined. Tavris goes on to show, as others have, how psychological science has historically followed a similar approach in its construction of woman and gender.The feminist critique of science came to my attention several years ago as I began to explore disciplinary frontiers in order to develop a new elective This article is a revised version of an invited address presented at the 23rd annual meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Chicago, May 1997.I thank Guillermo V. Ruiz for inspiration and Judi Addelston for her insightful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript.Please address correspondence and reprint requests to Maria R. Ruiz, Department of Psychology, Rollins College, 1000 Holt Ave -2760, Winter Park, Florida 32789-4499 (E-mail:MRuiz@rollins.edu). course for our undergraduate psychology curriculum. As a behavior analyst teaching undergraduates in a liberal arts institution, I realized that some of my most engaging intellectual conversations were with feminist colleagues from disciplines other than psychology. I decided to focus on the existing feminist psychological literature and eventually developed a course I entitled "Women: Psychology's Challenge."As I explored the feminist psychological literature, particularly its critique of traditional psychological science, I realized two things. First, and I felt very enthusiastic about this point, the feminist critique of traditional psychological science was, in some ways, remarkably consistent with the radical behaviorist critique.The second point was distressing yet ironically familiar. Radical behaviorism, the philosophy of science articulated by Skinner and the conceptual framework for behavior analysis, was amon...

show abstract

Envisioning Cultural Practices

Cited by 29 publications

References 20 publications

An Ethnographic Study of Tagging Cultures

An Ethnographic Study of Tagging Cultures

Behavioral Strategies for Constructing Nonviolent Cultures With Youth

Personal agency in feminist theory: Evicting the illusive dweller

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About