Vernacular Selection: What to Say and When to Say It

Abstract

The language of behavior analysis is precise in the sense that it focuses attention on functional relations between behavior and the environment that are extended in time. However, to non-behavior analysts, behavior-analytic terms and explanations are difficult to understand and awkward sounding. Evidence suggests that this has had deleterious effects on the acceptance of the field of behavior analysis and its explanations of behavior. The goal of this article is to assert that verbal behavior that describes behavior is functionally related to subsequent explanatory verbal behavior. In addition, it is argued that technical language is not a requirement of precision and logical formulation. Suggestions are made regarding how behavior analysts can generate evidence to better understand explanatory preferences of individuals with various amounts of exposure to behavior analysis. In addition, methods are suggested for introducing behavior analysis to others with vernacular descriptions of behavior and its causes that do not obscure critical distinctions by introducing mental/mediational explanations.

Ethical oversight run amok: A reply to Phu and Byrne (2018).

“…We must have recourse to pursue employment even when we do not agree with every practice of the agency, and we must have options to advertise empirically validated and data-driven services to clients. What can and should be permissible in testimonials needs to be discussed if we are to sell our services in a manner that is congruent with the client’s buying habits, something that might be akin to how we present our field (see, e.g., Neuman, 2018). If we allow our ethics to override common sense and professional judgment, we run the risk of further isolating the field from our consumer base and sending clients in need of behavior-analytic services to less valid, less successful, yet better advertised, choices.…”

Participative leadership in small businesses

“…( 2017) ha sido el de liderazgo en la producción complementada lo cual significa que el líder "…participa activamente modelando, señalando, prescribiendo o incluso con respuestas en secuencia directa respecto del comportamiento de los otros integrantes del grupo, por lo que su comportamiento individual se vuelve la circunstancia ante la cual los otros miembros actúan de correspondencia, permitiendo, o no, la administración, facilitación, dirección o complementación del primero" (Camacho et al, 2017, p.353). Esta forma de concebir al liderazgo puede ser abreviada con el término Liderazgo Participante lo que tiene la virtud de favorecer la comunicabilidad con actores del campo empresarial no familiarizados con la perspectiva conductual (véase Neuman, 2018). Adicionalmente, por la naturaleza de su participación directa y activa en la contingencia vigente, el liderazgo participante debe ser distinguido del liderazgo participativo (Grill, et al, 2017) ya que este último se refiere a los comportamientos del líder que habilitan o permiten la participación de los seguidores en la toma de decisiones, pero no implica que el líder esté involucrado directamente en el trabajo a realizar.…”

Mitigating Racial Inequity by Addressing Racism in the Criminal Justice System: A Behavior Analytic Approach

“…Behavior analysts continue to weigh the effects technical and nontechnical language may have on different audiences. Neuman (2018) discusses verbal behavior of behavior analysts and its effect on listeners within and outside the behavior analytic verbal community. He emphasizes the large effect that small differences in descriptions of behavior can have on the listener's interpretation of behavior.…”

“…Applying this approach to language used to discuss racism means carefully selecting terms in the vernacular of the audience and framing them in a manner that emphasizes the environmental variables maintaining the behavior of interest. Neuman (2018) highlights the importance of engaging in verbal behavior that brings the listener's behavior "under the control of relevant functional relations and temporally extended patterns of events and activities" as opposed to a topographical description of the behavior explained by a mentalistic explanatory fiction (p. 76). The term posited by Kendi (2019), "racist policy," fulfills this mandate by saying…”